Abstract
We examined the effect of endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) and balloon-occluded retrograde obliteration (B-RTO) on neurophysiological (NP) functions of patients with subclinical hepatic encephalopathy (HE). The subjects were selected from patients with esophageal and gastric varices who were diagnosed as subclinical HE using the NP test. Of these, 8 patients who received EIS, 5 patients underwent B-RTO, and 5 patients were the control. In EIS and B-RTO groups, the NP tests were performed one day before the treatment and approximately one week after the completion of the treatment. In the control group, the test was performed twice at the interval of 1-2 weeks. The EIS treatment group showed significant improvement in either of number connection test-A and block design test after treatment (ρ<0.05). The B-RTO treatment group showed significant improvement in block design test after treatment (ρ<0.05). The control group showed no significant improvement in the second test. It was indicated that EIS and B-RTO improves HE.
