tudy the Efficacy of Argon Plasma Coagulation or Endoscopic Band Ligation versus their Companion in Management of Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia in Cirrhotic Patients

Abstract

 Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) is a rare and often misdiagnosed cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding accounts for up to 4% of all non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleedings.  Multiple options are available for the treatment of GAVE including endoscopic, surgical and medical therapies.  Up till now, Argon Plasma Coagulation (APC) is considered the standard therapy for GAVE, Endoscopic Band Ligation (EBL) is gaining acceptance as the standard method for the treatment of GAVE after multiple studies, including one that was done in our unit, which confirmed its superiority over APC,  This study was conducted to optimize the approach of treatment of GAVE.  In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of APC followed by EBL in comparison to APC or EBL alone for the treatment of bleeding GAVE in Egyptian cirrhotic patients.  We conducted this study on 45 adult cirrhotic patients with overt or occult bleeding from GAVE. Patients were divided into 3 groups: 15 patients in each group. Group I was treated with APC alone, group II was treated with EBL alone and Group III was treated with APC followed by EBL.