Endoscopic sclerotherapy with ethanolamine oleate in the management of bleeding gastric varices

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of emergency sclerotherapy with 5% ethanolamine oleate in gastric variceal bleeding and preliminary evaluation of selerotherapy combined with continuous infusion of somatostatin. Between 1.997 and 2002 endoscopic selerotherapy was performed in consecutive 22 patients, including 9 with somatostatin. Instant cessation of bleeding was achieved in 18 patients including all receiving somatostatin. One patient with persistent bleeding underwent successful splenectomy and devascularization procedure. Three patients, all. class C Child, died due to uncontrolled bleeding and liver insufficiency. Recurrent bleeding was observed in 3 patients. They were subjected to repeated selerotherapy, successful in 2 cases. Overall hospital mortality the rate was 18,2% (4/22 patients).