Sistema gastrointestinal y digestivo

Abstracto

Treatments for Rectal Varices with Portal Hypertension

Takahiro Sato

Rectal varices are considered to occur infrequent, however, potentially serious cause of hematochezia. Various treatments have been performed to control bleeding rectal varices. Some investigators have reported that endoscopic treatments such as endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) and endoscopic band ligation (EBL) were successfully employed for rectal variceal bleeding. EIS may be superior to EBL with regard to long-term effectiveness and complications as endoscopic treatments of rectal varices, and percutaneous transhepatic obliteration may be useful for large rectal varices. Hemorrhage from rectal varices should be kept in mind in patients with portal hypertension presenting with lower gastrointestinal bleeding, however, it is difficult to determine the best medical treatment strategy for rectal varices because of difficulty in diagnosis and subsequent difficulty in treatment.