Endoscopic management for bleeding esophageal varices: sclerotherapy versus sclerotherapy plus band ligation versus band ligation alone. One year experience at a main hospital in Saudi Arabia.
OBJECTIVE
This study was done retrospectively to compare the outcome of sclerotherapy alone, band ligation alone and band ligation alternating with sclerotherapy in treatment of esophageal varices.


METHODS
During 1 year 30 patients were admitted with variceal bleeding. They received either injection sclerotherapy (8 patients) or band ligation (11 patients), and 11 patients had a combination of both either during first bleed or during follow-up therapy, which is more than 2 sessions in each group.


RESULTS
The success rate for stopping first bleeding was 100% in the band ligation and sclerotherapy alone group. The rebleeding rate was 27% in the combination group, 9% in the band ligation group, and none had rebleeding in the sclerotherapy group during follow-up. Eradication of varices was observed in 33% of patients after a second set of sclerotherapy and band ligation.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed no significant difference between sclerotherapy versus band ligation in stopping initial bleeding or eradication of varices during the follow-up period, but there was a difference in re-bleeding rates among the three groups.
Mohamed
A R
AR
Gastroenterology Department, Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Gadour
M
M
Ghandour
Z
Z
al Karawi
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000628:therapy*; D004945:Esophagoscopy; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008026:Ligation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D019233:Retreatment; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D015911:Sclerotherapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome