[Comparative study of the effectiveness of thermocoagulation, sclerotherapy and a combination of sclerotherapy and thermocoagulation in the treatment of acute peptic ulcer hemorrhage].

During the 3 years of the trial (June, 1988--December, 1990), 128 patients underwent urgent diagnostic endoscopy and hemostasis for acute peptic-ulcer bleeding. In the first group consisting of 57 patients, hemostasis was carried out by thermocoagulation (heat probe), in the second one (54 patients) by injection sclerotherapy and in the third group, hemorrhage was controlled by a combination of heater probe and sclerotherapy. The first and second groups did not differ significantly in age, sex, hemoglobin values, size, location of an ulcer, and kind of bleeding lesions classified according to Forrest. The efficacy of thermocoagulation and injection sclerotherapy in the treatment of acute peptic-ulcer bleeding was compared. In the group of patients treated with the heater probe, the initial hemostasis was achieved in 56 (98%) patients, while rebleeding occurred in 6 (10.7%) patients. In the sclerotherapy group, the initial hemostasis was accomplished in 51 (94.4%) patients, while 8 (15.6%) patients experienced rebleeding. There was no statistically significant difference in ultimate hemostasis between the patients treated with heater probe (94.7%) and the sclerotherapy patients (88.8%). The incipient results of the treatment of bleeding peptic ulcers obtained by a combination of sclerotherapy and heater probe were extremely good, but the final conclusion will be brought after the research on a larger group of patients. The only patient that died during the treatment belonged to the sclerotherapy group.