Summary
We analyzed the endoscopic findings in 788 patients with esophageal and gastric varices who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy between 1 January 1979 and 31 December 1988. Of these, 154 patients (19.6%) had gastric varices associated in various patterns with esophageal varices. Congestive gastropathy, occurring with esophageal and gastric varices (43.4%), was the most frequent pathology detected in our patients. Esophagitis was present in 15.8% of patients, but did not correlate with variceal bleeding. Endoscopy performed at 1 day to 1 week post-hemorrhage in 313 patients accurately identified the source of bleeding in only 57.2% of patients. This figure increased to 98.2% when we performed the examination within the first 24 h of hemorrhage. In this group varices were the source of hemorrhage in 72.3% of patients while the hemorrhage came from other sources, such as erosive gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcer in 27.6% of patients.
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Buccino, R.V., Bogliolo, G., Ferrara, M. et al. Endoscopic approach to patients with portal hypertension: a complex diagnosis. Surg Endosc 4, 76–79 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00591262
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00591262