Primary prophylaxis of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding: consensus recommendations of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver.
The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) set up a Working Party on Portal Hypertension in 2002, with a mandate to develop consensus guidelines on various clinical aspects of portal hypertension relevant to disease patterns and clinical practice in the Asia-Pacific region. Variceal bleeding is a consequence of portal hypertension, which, in turn, is the major complication of liver cirrhosis. Primary prophylaxis to prevent the first bleed from varices is one of the most important strategies for reducing the mortality in cirrhotic patients. Experts predominantly from the Asia-Pacific region were requested to identify the different aspects of primary prophylaxis and develop the consensus guidelines. The APASL Working Party on Portal Hypertension evaluated the various therapies that have been used for the prevention of first variceal bleeding. A 2-day meeting was held on January 12 and 13, 2007, at New Delhi, India, to discuss and finalize the consensus statements. Only those statements that were unanimously approved by the experts were accepted. These statements were circulated to all the experts and were subsequently presented at the annual conference of the APASL at Kyoto, Japan, in March 2007.
Sarin
Shiv Kumar
SK
Department of Gastroenterology, G B Pant Hospital, Affiliated to University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110 002, India, sksarin@nda.vsnl.net.in.
Kumar
Ashish
A
Angus
Peter W
PW
Baijal
Sanjay Saran
SS
Chawla
Yogesh Kumar
YK
Dhiman
Radha Krishna
RK
Janaka de Silva
H
H
Hamid
Saeed
S
Hirota
Shozo
S
Hou
Ming-Chih
MC
Jafri
Wasim
W
Khan
Mobin
M
Lesmana
Laurentius A
LA
Lui
Hock F
HF
Malhotra
Veena
V
Maruyama
Hitoshi
H
Mazumder
Debendranath Guha
DG
Omata
Masao
M
Poddar
Ujjal
U
Puri
Amrinder S
AS
Sharma
Praveen
P
Qureshi
Huma
H
Raza
Rizvi Moattar
RM
Sahni
Peush
P
Sakhuja
Puja
P
Salih
Mohammad
M
Santra
Amal
A
Sharma
Barjesh Chander
BC
Shah
Hasnain Ali
HA
Shiha
Gamal
G
Sollano
Jose
J