• Jun-Lin Yeh, Yen-Chun Peng, Chun-Fang Tung, Dar-Yu Yang, Wei-Hsiung Hu, Wei-Keung Chow, Hung-Zen Yeh, and Gran-Hum Chen.
• Division of Gastroenterology, China Medical University Hospital.
• Hepato Gastroenterol. 2003 Sep 1;50(53):1603-8.

Background/AimsHepatocellular carcinoma is part of the natural history of liver cirrhosis. Gastrointestinal bleeding and hepatic failure are the leading causes of death in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. With gastrointestinal bleeding, variceal bleeding is the most prominent, and most variceal bleeding is of esophageal origin. Gastric varices bleeding is often a massive and severe bleeding episode. The role of gastric varices among patients with hepatocellular carcinoma remains to be clarified. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence, clinical significance and prediction of gastric varices in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodologyFrom 1998 to 2000, we reviewed 304 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma receiving upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examinations. Patients' clinical characteristics, physical findings, laboratory data, image studies, endoscopic examinations and treatment were reviewed.ResultsAmong 304 patients with HCC, twenty-one (6.9%) had gastric varices among 304 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The location of gastric varices were the posterior wall in 12 (57%), the lesser curvature in 1 (5%), the greater curvature in 4 (19%) and the fundus in 4 (19%). Three (14%) of these 21 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and gastric varices had clinical evidence of bleeding. One of them died due to uncontrollable bleeding. Child-Pugh classification, hepatic encephalopathy, portal vein or splenic vein dilatation, ascites, splenomegaly, albumin level, prothrombin time and platelet count were significantly different between hepatocellular carcinoma patients with gastric varices and without gastric varices under the univariate analysis. Ascites (Odds ratio: 5.45; 95% confidence interval: 2.12-14.01) and portal vein or splenic vein dilatation (Odds ratio: 4.38; 95% confidence interval: 1.77-10.86) were the two most important predictors under the stepwise logistic regression analysis.ConclusionsThe prevalence of gastric varices in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is 6.9% and the risk of bleeding is low in this study. The Predictors of gastric varices among hepatocellular carcinoma are related to liver cirrhosis, Child-Pugh classification, hepatic encephalopathy, portal vein or splenic vein dilatation, ascites, splenomegaly, albumin level, prothrombin time and platelet count.

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