title: Childhood portal hypertension in Jamaica.
abstract: Portal hypertension and bleeding from oesophageal varices in children remain a difficult medical problem. The clinical course and management of children with portal hypertension seen over a 14-year period was reviewed. There were 5 females and 2 males with a mean age of 3.6 years at presentation. Five patients presented with severe upper gastrointestinal bleeding and two with severe hypersplenism. All patients had extra-hepatic portal hypertension. Five patients were treated with endoscopic sclerotherapy, including one who had bleeding five years post-splenectomy. A mean of 9 sclerotherapy sessions was performed in each patient. Complete obliteration of varices was not achieved in any patient and a single rebleeding episode occurred in four. Three children underwent operative management consisting of splenectomy in two and splenectomy and central spleno-renal shunt in one. There was no mortality in either group after a mean follow-up of 4.3 years. Sclerotherapy may not be totally successful in long-term management of childhood portal hypertension. Surgical therapy or a combination of sclerotherapy and surgery may be the best approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, U.W.I., Jamaica.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ramphal
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Venugopal
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006975:Hypertension, Portal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007563:Jamaica / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies