Results and Outcomes of Band Ligation among 95 Cases with Esophageal Varices in Taleghani Hospital between 2002 and 2007

Endoscopic Variceal Ligation (EVL) is considered the selective method of therapy for patients who suffer from esophageal varices. In this article we evaluated the results and outcomes of patients who underwent EVL with multiband ligators due to their esophageal varices. We studied 95 cases of esophageal varices who underwent EVL at Taleghani Hospital between 2002 and 2007. EVL was applied because of active bleeding, primary or secondary prophylaxis for esophageal varice of grade 2 or above. The process was repeated every 3-4 weeks until the varices were occluded or become to grade 1 varices or small thrombosed ones. Their demographaic data were gathered and analyzed as well as all the informations about their recent procedure. Our studied subjects had the mean age of 51.53 ± 15.31 (ranged from 15 to 81). The average number of sessions for performing EVL were 1.81± 1.07 (ranged between 1 and 8 times). The mostprevalent cause for applying EVL was active bleeding. Complications were significantly more in patients whom were candidated for EVL by reason of active bleeding, compared to those who underwent EVL for either primary or secondary prophylactic reasons (P=0.02). Among cases who had developed any complications, the numbers of ligation sessions were significantly more than other patints (2.58±1.25 vs 1.40 ± 0.66, P<0.001). There was no case of death due to this mode of therapy. EVL as a selective mode of therapy for treatment of esophageal varices possesses a few cosequential complications and its application, therfore, is reasonable.