Abstract

GOMEZ ZULETA, Martín Alonso. Experience with a home made kit in more than 150 esophageal variceal ligation. Rev Col Gastroenterol [online]. 2008, vol.23, n.2, pp.115-122. ISSN 0120-9957.

Introduction. The variceal ligation is the gold standard procedure in variceal bleeding, but the commercial kits are very expensive ($1.000.000). For this reason a home-made kit of $2.000 was created. This trail wants to show the experience in the treatment of patients with this pathology in more than 150 ligation done with this kit. Patients and Methods. Retrospective case series of patients referred for ligation. The main demographic data, etiology of the cirrhosis, indication of the ligation, number of endoscopic sessions for the complete treatment of the varix, and number of bands needed per session were evaluated. Results. 49 patients with 162 ligation were included. Mean: 58.6 (1.9) years old, 24 men (49%). Etiology of portal hypertension: alcohol ingestion 25 (51%) and idiopathic 12 (24.5%). 33 (67.3%) patients were classified as CHILD A and 15 (30.6%) as B. Indication of secondary prophylaxis in 33 (67.3) and acute bleeding in 9 (18.3%). The number of endoscopies for eradication was 2 in 34 (69.4%) patients. The cost for each kit was $2.000, which means that the total amount of money for all the patients was $324.000, and $ 161.676.000 were saved. Conclusion. This trail shows that a "home-made" kit is safe and effective for the treatment of varix, similar as what is described with the commercial kit, but with a very inferior cost, which makes it affordable for all patients.

Keywords : Cirrhosis; varix; ligation; endoscopy.

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