Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Coil With Cyanoacrylate Injection Versus Balloon-Occluded Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration in Managing Patients With Gastric Varices

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a common complication of liver cirrhosis which caused by esophageal and gastric varices. The risk of bleeding from gastric varices is relatively low. However, the bleeding is usually significant and severe.

Current guidelines recommend endoscopic glue injection as the first line of treatment for gastric variceal bleeding.

Although this technique has been shown to be effective, it is associated with many severe adverse events including systemic embolization, fever, chest pain, and even death. The rate of hemostasis has been reported to be as high as 91-100% but the rebleeding rate from gastric varices still present.

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided therapy has recently been introduced as a more effective and safer option than endoscopic therapy for gastric varices. EUS-guided therapy includes EUS guided Cyanoacrylate injection alone or in combination with EUS-guided coiling. It offers the advantage of directly visualizing the varices and delivering targeted therapy.

A standard endoscopic examination only allows the evaluation of superficial varices. The use of Endoscopic ultrasound facilitates evaluation of peri-gastric and perforating vessels, which are directly involved in variceal development. EUS also facilitates accurate placement of the coil and preserves the naturally formed splenorenal shunt.

Balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration(BRTO) has been reported to achieve satisfactory bleeding control rates for isolated gastric varices with High hemostasis rates and low rebleeding rate.

Despite all these promising results, there are scarce studies describing and comparing the efficacy of EUS-guided therapy and BRTO in patients with gastric varices. Further prospective comparative studies are needed.