INJECTION SCLEROTHERAPY FOR ESOPHAGEAL-VARICES - A 10-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Background/Aim: Severe hemorrhage from oesophageal varices is one of t he most serious complications in patients with liver cirrhosis and por tal hypertension, affecting about 30-70 % of the former. This paper re ports the results of treatment of oesophageal varices by injection scl erotherapy Patients and Methods: 89 patients with oesophageal varices were treated with sclerotherapy in Oulu University Hospital in the per iod 1982-1991. The indication was acute bleeding in 74 cases and proph ylaxis in 15. Results: Three patients died of rebleeding before eradic ation of the varices and nine afterwards. Rebleeding was more common, in. the Child B and C groups than in Child A (p<0.01). Rebleeding did not correlate with the amount of sclerosant used. The most common comp lication was oesophageal stricture, noted in 15 patients, although onl y two required dilatation. This correlated with the amount of sclerosa nt used (P<0.05) 34 % of the patients died during the follow-up, the o verall mortality rate being 14 % in Child A cases, 35% in. Child B cas es and 92 % in Child C cases. Mortality was 26 % among the patients re ceiving prophylactic sclerotherapy (4/15) and 35% among those with ble eding varices 35% (26/74). Five patients were operated on for rebleedi ng problems, four as emergencies and one electively. Two emergency pat ients died. Conclusion: While the number of patients in our group rece iving prophylactic sclerotherapy was small, our results follow the gen eral survival tread for bleeding varices.