Abstract
Although most cases of acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding are managed by conservative or endoscopic treatment, there are still some patients who should receive more aggressive treatment. Transcatheter arterial embolization has been widely accepted for the treatment of life threatening acute upper and lower GI bleeding. Although the development of microcatheters and microcoils has enabled us to perform more distal embolization, it may be sometimes difficult to advance the microcatheter to the bleeding point because of vascular tortuosity and also to achieve complete hemostasis in patients with coagulopathy. N-butyl cyanoacrylate (NBCA) allows rapid and permanent embolization just after contact with blood and achieves complete hemostasis with the collateral vessels occlusions. NBCA embolization takes less time than conventional coil embolization and can prevent recurrent bleeding with a low risk of critical gastrointestinal ischemia, especially when the patient has an unstable hemodynamic state because of massive bleeding. Interventional radiologists should be familiar with the use of NBCA preparing for such a serious condition.
