Therapeutic effect of endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) for esophageal varices was analyzed. Subjects were 32 cases treated by EVL and 42 cases by endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) . These cases were followed up from January 1993 to January 1995 and red color signs were positive in all cases.
Twenty-six cases (84%) were effective with no red color sign at one month after EVL. The relapse rate of these effective cases was 24.9% at six months, and 60.4% at 12 months. These results were similar to those by EIS. In cases in which the findings of the esophageal varices were of form F2 or above, relapse rate at 12 months was 95.2% on EVL, and 60% on EIS. As for prognosis, EVL had higher relapse than EIS (p<0.05) . Risk of complication was less in EVL than in EIS therapy.
These results suggest that EVL is as effective as EIS. However, in cases of form F2 or above, efficacy of EVL treatment was shorter than that of EIS. Therefore, EVL and EIS therapy should be combined.
