Endoscopic Variceal Ligation for Treatment of Esophageal Varices

Hahm, Joon Soo; Kee, Choon Suhk; Park, Kyung Nam; Lee, Min Ho; Yoon, Seok Jin

Abstract

Endoscopic injection sclerotherapy(EIS) has been widely used in treating and eradicating acutely bleeding esophageal varies, but may be associated with some undesirable local and systemic complications. Endoscopic variceal ligation(EVL), which consists of mechanicai ligation and thrombosis of varices using elastic o-band, has been recently developed as a non operative alternative to EIS. We performed EVL in 65 patients who had bled from esophageal varices between November 1991 and September 1993. Total 274 sessions were performed and 774 o-bands were used. Six patients were actively bleeding and all of them were successfully controlled by emergency EVL. During the follow-up period, five patients who had combined hepatoma died. Varices were eradicated or reduced grade I in 43(71.6%) of the 60 survivals by 8-36 ligations(mean 15.6 ligation) in 2-13 EVL sessions(mean 5.6 sessions). During follow up period, five patients had recurred from grade 0 to grade 2 or 3 in 106-260 days(mean 182.6 days), and then eradicated by repeated EVL. During or after EVL, there were no complications, except mild substernal distress and mild dysphagia in 17 and 7 patients respectively. These results showed that EVL is a safe and effective method for eradication of bleeding esophageal varices.