Shunt Surgery Versus Endoscopic Sclerotherapy for Long-Term Treatment of Variceal Bleeding—Early Results of a Randomized Trial
As an additional service to our readers we have developed a section with the aim to review and comment on important work in the area of HPB and provide it with commentaries by leading scientists in the field. It is our hope that this will increase the value of our journal. We are happy to inform our readers that Professor John Terblanche has kindly accepted to be Editor of this section. John Terblanche will, through his extensive reading, identify important contributions and invite experts around the world to comment on them. We hope that readers who identify significant contributions in journals will send copies of the work to Professor Terblanche with the suggestion that the work might be reviewed and discussed. It is our hope that this cooperation will be successful. The Editor strongly desires to have a lively journal with active participation by its readers. ABSTRACT In September 1982, a prospective randomized trial comparing shunt surgery and endoscopic sclerotherapy for the elective management of variceal hemorrhage in patients with cirrhosis was initiated. Twenty-seven patients have received shunts (distal splenorenal 23, nonselective 4) and 30 patients have had chronic sclerotherapy. Eighty-six per cent of patients had alcoholic cirrhosis and 33% were Child's class C. After a mean follow-up of 25 months, 19% of shunt and 57% of sclerotherapy patients have had rebleeding (p 0.003). Kaplan-Meier survival 85