Commentary
See article on page 682Life, death, and varices
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension,
gastrointestinal haemorrhage is a major complication and cause of
death. Oesophageal varices are present in approximately 50% of
patients with cirrhosis; the prevalence is higher in Child-Pugh C
patients than in those with Child-Pugh A-B. Among patients with
varices, the risk of gastrointestinal haemorrhage ranges from 30% to
50% and half of these patients die within six weeks after bleeding. Thus 10-15% of unselected patients with cirrhosis die from
gastrointestinal bleeding. The number of deaths has decreased in the
last few decades as a result of modern techniques (see below). The
exact mechanisms of variceal rupture have not yet been determined and
thus no ideal treatment has been found. However, haemorrhage has been
shown to cause different complications such as sepsis or renal failure which may be responsible for death. In patients admitted for variceal haemorrhage, certain prognostic factors for death have been
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Gut 2001 49: 682-685.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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