Endoscopic ultrasound guided therapy of gastric varices: Initial experience in the Arab world (with video).

Background and objectives: Gastric varices (GV) bleeding is a catastrophic complication of portal hypertension and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. There are limited effective therapeutic interventions for the management of bleeding GV. Recently, EUS-guided therapy has been shown to be effective and safe intervention for such patients. However, there are no data to describe the feasibility and safety of EUS-guided therapy for GV in Arab population. The aim of this study is to describe our initial experience of EUS-guided therapy for GV in Kuwait.

Methods: A case-series of patients that underwent EUS-guided therapy for clinically significant GV. All patients underwent EUS-guided therapy including Cyanoacrylate (CYA) injection with or without coil embolization. Patients were followed post procedure to document GV obliteration and monitor for any adverse events.

Results: In total, 15 patients were included in this study (80% male) with mean age of 58 ± 12 years. The main indication for therapy was active GV bleeding (53.3%) followed by secondary prophylaxis (33.3%). Most patients had GOV-2 (80%) with mean GV size of 24.9 ± 7.9 mm. Combined EUS coil-CYA was used in most patients (80%), mean volume of CYA injected was 1.5 ± 0.74ml and mean number coils used of 1.5 ± 1.4. The technical success rate was 100% and all patients achieved GV obliteration after a median of 1 session (range 1-2). There were no major adverse events.

Conclusion: Among Arab population with portal hypertension, EUS-guided therapy is highly effective and safe option for the managements of clinically significant GV.