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Prevention of first variceal bleeding: drugs

  • Conference paper
Portal Hypertension in the 21st Century

Abstract

The goal of prophylactic therapy is the prevention of a first episode of bleeding and bleeding-related mortality. Preventive therapy began more than 30 years ago with surgical portacaval shunts, resulting in a significant reduction in variceal bleeding but also a significantly greater risk of hepatic encephalopathy and mortality1; therefore this surgical option has been considered unsuitable. Since this period progress has been made in identifying patients with a high risk of bleeding, and various pharmacologic and endoscopic therapies have been proposed to reduce the risk of bleeding and death2.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U-481 and Service d’Hepatologie, Hopital Beaujon, 100 Bd du General Leclerc, 92110, Clichy, France

    Didier Lebrec

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  1. Didier Lebrec
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    R. J. Groszmann

  2. Hepatic Hemodynamic Laboratory Liver Unit, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Spain

    J. Bosch

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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Lebrec, D. (2004). Prevention of first variceal bleeding: drugs. In: Groszmann, R.J., Bosch, J. (eds) Portal Hypertension in the 21st Century. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1042-9_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1042-9_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3774-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1042-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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