Improved survival after variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhosis over the past two decades
✍ Scribed by Nicolas Carbonell; Arnaud Pauwels; Lawrence Serfaty; Olivier Fourdan; Victor George Lévy; Raoul Poupon
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 193 KB
- Volume
- 40
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0270-9139
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Over the past two decades, new treatment modalities have been introduced for the management of variceal bleeding. The aim of this retrospective study in a single center was to assess whether these treatments have improved the prognosis for cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding. We reviewed the clinical records of all patients with cirrhosis admitted to our Liver Intensive Care Unit due to variceal bleeding during the years 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000. Whereas balloon tamponade was still the first-line treatment in 1980, patients treated in 2000 received a vasoactive agent, an endoscopic treatment, and an antibiotic prophylaxis in, respectively, 90%, 100%, and 94% of cases. The in-hospital mortality rate steadily decreased over the study period: 42.