Prophylactic Endoscopic Variceal Ligation for Esophageal Varices with High - risk of Hemorrhage

Lee, Ok Jae; Chung, Kee Moon

Abstract

Prophylactic treatment of varices is an appealing concept because 50% of patients who experience variceal bleeding will die within the first 6 weeks of the first bleeding. However, the majority of trials which have evaluated prophylactic therapy gave failed to demonstrate advantage, We tried prophylactic endoscopic variceal ligation(EVL) in 10 patients, to evaluate the safety and effect of prophylactic EVL for esophageal varices with high-risk of hemorrhage. The eradication rate was 100% without bleeding and mortality, the mean session for eradication of varices 1.9, the number of bands per person 16.9 and the number of bands per session 8.9. Although mild chest pain(5.3%) and chest discomfortness(31.6%) were observed, no serious complication related with EVL resulted from 19 EVL sessions. The patients were followed for a mean of 327.0 days(85-708), during which recurrent esophagea1 varices were found in a case at 260 days from last session, but no bleeding nor death was occured. No late complication of EVL was documented. In conclusion, prophylactic EVL is safe and may be effective for esophageal varices with high-risk of hemorrhage. But, the large controlled-trial should be required.