Abstract
The risk of variceal bleeding associated with endoscopic findings of esophagogastric varices (EGV) were studied in 234 patients suffered from EGV, including 174 patients received prophylactic treatment and 60 patients with emergency treatment. The endo-scopic findings of EGV were classified into 5 types as follows ; I-E (esophageal type): only esophageal varices (EV), I-J (junctional type): esophageal varices originated from esophago-gastric junction (EGJ), II-C (cardiac type) : esophageal varices existing continuously from cardiac varices of the lesser curvature of the stomach, II-S (surrounding type) : esophageal varices with cardiac varices which surrounds EGJ, III (fundic type) : gastric varices of the fornix of the stomach with or without EV. The incidence of bleeding cases were 16%, 19%, 33%, 43%, and 41% in type I-E, I-J, II-C, II-S, and III, respectively. The bleeding point was observed below EGJ in 45%, 57%, 66%, and 75% on type I-J, II-C, II-S, and III, respectively. These results indicate that the existence of fundic varices, themselves, tends to have high risk of variceal bleeding. We therefore emphasize that the prophylactic treatment should be recommended in order to prevent bleeding from fundic varices.
