The Natural History of Hæmorrhage From Œsophageal Varices

Problems of alimentary bleeding.

“…The postsinusoidal causes, which in this country are almost entirely due to hepatic cirrhosis, when causing haematemesis and melaena tend to carry a poor prognosis on account of the underlying hepatocellular insufficiency. Hislop et al (1966) recorded a mortality of 54% in the first episode of bleeding among 63 admissions to the Central Middlesex Hospital and to St. James's Hospital, Balham. There is one rare sub-group-partial nodular transformation of the liver-with portal hypertension in which the duration of life is considerably greater than in cirrhosis (Sherlock et al, 1966).…”

Incidence of the appearance of the red color sign on esophageal varices and its predictive factors: long-term observations of 359 patients with cirrhosis

“…The reports [18][19][20][21][22] concerned with the natural history of esophageal varices were published before 1980. Therefore, in the present study, we enrolled patients with cirrhosis admitted to our hospital from 1981 to 1989.…”

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhosis: clinical and endoscopic correlations.

“…Upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with portal hypertension has been classically related to ruptured oesophageal varices (Hislop et al, 1966), and portacaval shunt operations have been performed for many years, even though diagnosis of the bleeding site was only presumptive. The present study confirms what other authors have reported: that bleeding in patients with cirrhosis may be due to several causes other than varices (Palmer, 1969;Khodadoost and Glass, 1972;Bordas, et al, 1973;Rueff, 1974;Waldram et al, 1974;Hoare, 1975).…”