Endoscopic laser treatment for gastrointestinal vascular ectasias.
Forty-three patients with recurrent bleeding from gastrointestinal vascular ectasias had endoscopic treatment with either an argon or a neodymium-YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) laser. Although 22 patients had some rebleeding, only 6 patients required resection for recurrent hemorrhage not controlled by laser treatments. Overall, the number of blood transfusions per patient decreased significantly (p less than 0.0001) when calculated for 6-month periods before and after initial laser treatments (1.5 +/- 0.2 U/month compared to 0.5 +/- 0.1 U/month). Rebleeding after the initial laser treatment was significantly more likely in patients with upper gastrointestinal ectasias than in patients with colonic lesions only (p less than 0.005).
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002432:Cecum / Q000098:blood supply; D003106:Colon / Q000098:blood supply; D004064:Digestive System / Q000098:blood supply*; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy; D008028:Light Coagulation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence