Esophageal varices hemorrage relapse prevention by varices ligation in the digestive endoscopie center of CHU Gabriel Touré Bamako (Mali): 40 cases reported

Bleeding from esophageal and/or gastric varices is frequent in our country. Endoscopic treatment has resulted in important progress.The main goal of our study was to report our experience and the morbidity in variceal banding. This longitudinal and descriptive study included 40 patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding from varices admitted between may 2012 and june 2014 in the medical department of the CHU Gabriel Touré. The mean age was 40.8 years (± 10.9) and the sex-ratio 1.85 (M/F). Grade 2 varices were present in 30% of the patients and grade 3 in 70%. Cirrhosis was mainly due to HBV (92.5%), to HCV in 5% and idiopathic in 2.5%. Three sessions of banding were performed in 22 patients, with a mean interval of 3 weeks between sessions. One patient died from recurrent bleeding after a single ligation session. Eradication of the varices was obtained in 62.5% of cases.