Sara Ijaz Gilani, Muhammad Khurram, Hamama Tul Bushra, Khushnood Ijaz, Sana Ali, Naveed Younas Khan, Muhammad Arif, Najia Mahmood, Framruz Khan.
Endoscopic variceal band ligation in chronic liver disease patients: experience at Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpnidi.
Pak J Gastroenterol Jan ;22(2):3-6.

Objective: To note effect of repeated endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) sessions on grades and number of esophageal varices in chronic liver diseases (CLD) patients. Study design: Cross sectional, observational. Study site and duration: Department of Medicine, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi from January 2008 to April 2009. Materials and methods: CLD patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding, who underwent at least three successive sessions of EVL for esophageal varices were included consecutively. Endoscopic data regarding number and grades of esophageal varices noted at successive sessions was collected and analyzed using SPSS version 12. Chi square test was used as test of significance. P value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Sixty six patients, 54.5% (n=36) male and 45.5% (n=30) female were included. Mean patient age was 48.36±12.07 years. Majority of patients (74.2%, n=47) were anti HCV antibody positive. At first endoscopic session, esophageal varices were noted in all patients. Majority of these had multiple column (65.7%, n=44), F3 (57.6%, n=38) and F2 (24.2%, n=16) varices. 29 patients had 3, 15 had 4, 13 had 5, and rest had more than 5 sessions of EVL. With successive EVL sessions, statistically significant reduction in F2-4 grade and number of multiple columns varices was noted, p value <0.05. Conclusion: Successive EVL sessions lead to decrease in number and grade of esophageal varices in CLD patients.

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