title: Long-term survivors after variceal haemorrhage. Follow-up of a controlled study of endoscopic sclerotherapy versus conservative management.
abstract: In a prospective controlled trial of conservative therapy (vasopressin/balloon tamponade (control group] versus endoscopic sclerotherapy (ST) for the acute bleeding and at rebleeding, 107 cirrhotic patients with major variceal haemorrhage were studied from 1979 to 1983. The prospective follow-up study is now presented of the 51 patients surviving for more than 1 year. The present ST group (30 patients) was followed for a median of 5 years (range, 1-7.5 years), and the controls for 4 years (3-5.5 years). Variceal eradication was obtained in 22 ST patients in the 1st year after a median of 6 months and 5 ST sessions, and in 7 ST patients after 21 months and 9 ST sessions. The delay was due to alcoholic abuse. Eleven ST patients and 11 controls (NS) rebled on 30 and 45 occasions during a total follow-up time of 1364 and 696 months and 0.0220 and 0.0647 bleeds per patient-month, respectively (p = 0.098). Eight ST patients experienced 12 variceal bleeds, 11 controls had 39 haemorrhages with variceal aetiology, 0.0088 and 0.0560 bleeds per patient-month (p = 0.016), respectively. Five ST patients had recurrent varices on nine occasions with five episodes of bleeding a median of 13 months after completion of the initial serial ST. Reelimination was achieved with a median of three ST sessions during 3 months, but three patients had a second variceal recurrence 14-24 months later, successfully treated with one ST session in two of them. There was no difference in survival.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Surgery, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Söderlund
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004724:Endoscopy; D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011897:Random Allocation; D012597:Sclerosing Solutions / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D012597:Sclerosing Solutions