Abstract
With regard to esophageal varices, the preferred treatment for bleeding gastric varices remains controversial and empiric. Endoscopic cyanoacrylate injection for bleeding gastric varices has been widely applied and has been reported to achieve hemostasis in more than 90% of patients with acute gastric variceal bleeding. However, reports of severe complications related to embolization in the brain, lung, portal vein and spleen have raised concerns about the safety of tissue adhesive agent injection. Nine admissions for bleeding gastric varices were treated with endoscopic hemoclipping at Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Yokohama, Japan. When spurting gastric variceal bleeding or fibrin clots on the gastric varices were encountered, hemoclips were applied. Endoscopic hemoclipping resulted in hemostasis for gastric variceal bleeding in all nine cases, and there was no instance of immediate post-clipping hemostatic failure. In general, hemoclipping is easy to perform, thus, this procedure is available to endoscopists who are not familiar with injection methods for variceal bleeding.
