title: 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.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Gastroenterology Department, Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gadour
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ghandour
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: al Karawi
mesh_terms: 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