1999 Volume 55 Issue 2 Pages 38-40
A 56-year-old man received esophagectomy against advanced esophageal carcinoma in July, 1997. Gastric roll was utilized for substitution. Postoperative irradiation, a total dose of 48Gy, was performed four month after the surgery to uppermediastinum and bilateral upperclavicular area. In April 1998, he was admitted to our hospital due to bloody stool. Endoscopy revealed severe gastric erosion which was supposed to be resulted by radiation. As the coagulation with high frequent wave was ineffective for hemostatic procedure, we adopted Argon Plasma Coagulation (APC) in September 1998 and succeeded in hemostasis of the widely-spread circular erosion in gastric roll. The bleeding never recurred until he died of a disseminated carcinoma. As APC is considered to coagulate only the surface of mucosa, cicatricial stenosis could hardly happen even if coagulated to circular lesion. This feature is to be evaluated as one of the most useful device for gastrointestinal hemarrhage.
