Gluing gastric varices in 2012: lessons learnt over 25 years

Bleeding from gastric varices (GV) continues to pose a challenge to the endoscopist and no consensus has been reached on the best way for treating these patients. Gastric variceal obturation (GVO) with the tissue adhesive, N-2-butyl-cyanoacrylate (NBC), is considered the treatment of first-choice for this condition in most parts of the world. The liquid monomer polymerizes into a solid cast, obturating the vessel within 10-20 s of coming in contact with ionic solutions such as blood. Gastric variceal obturation achieves hemostasis in over 90% of patients with active bleeding, eradicates GV in over 80% of these patients, and re-bleeding occurs in 3-30%. These results are comparable with those of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting (TIPS; over 90% hemostasis in acute bleeding with re-bleeding in 15-30%). Though, there has been no direct comparison with GVO, balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration of GV (BRTO) achieves near 100% obliteration with recurrence in 0-10% and is superior to TIPS for hemostasis in active bleeding when used in combination with transcatheter sclerotherapy. Several complications have been described for GVO including thromboembolic complications which occur in 0.5-4.3% and may be devastating in some. Many of the complications and the variability in results of GVO can be attributed to variations in injection technique. The use of a standardized injection technique has been reported to achieve 100% hemostasis and obliteration with 6.9% re-bleeding and no embolic complications. Gastric variceal obturation with NBC continues to be the first-choice therapy for GV bleeding outside Japan. Adherence to a standard injection technique will maximize hemostasis and eradication of GV while minimizing complications of therapy.