[Therapeutic endoscopy in hemorrhages from varicose veins of the esophagus in patients with portal hypertension].

The article discusses 6-year experience in the treatment and prevention of esophageal hemorrhage by endoscopic sclerotherapy using 96% and 70% ethanol as the sclerosant. There were 99 patients under observation whose ages ranged from 27 to 70 years, 74 were admitted to the clinic with profuse hemorrhage. Sclerotherapy arrested the bleeding in 65 (90%) patients. Seven patients died from persisting bleeding, 5 from increasing hepatic insufficiency, and one patient from perforation of the esophagus and purulent mediastinitis. After discharge from the clinic 54 patients were kept under observation for periods of 6 to 20 months; 16 episodes of bleeding occurred in 13 of them. Repeated sclerotherapy proved effective in 10 patients, 3 patients died from continuing bleeding and hepatic insufficiency.