SLIDE 5 11/7/2017 5
Initial Management of Variceal Bleed
- Intubate and send to ICU
- Place 18 Gauge IVs x 2
- Bolus PPI and start drip
- Corrected coagulopathy (I like fibrinogen >
100, plts > 50K, INR < 2)
- Blood transfusion parameters?
- Antibiotics?
- Splanchnic vasocontrictor?
Transfusion Strategy: More Isn’t Better
- RCT of n=921 pts with UGIB
- Transfused to Hg <7 vs
liberal transfusion Hg <9.
- Restrictive strategy NO
increase in portal pressure
- Liberal transfusion strategy
increased portal pressure and twice as much rebleeding (11% vs 22%)
- Survival was improved with
restrictive transfusions
Villanueva et al, NEJM 2013 Hou et al., Hepatology, 2004 Hou et al., Hepatology, 2004 Prophylactic antibiotics (n=59) Prophylactic antibiotics (n=59)
% free of variceal hemorrhage % free of variceal hemorrhage
1.0 1.0 0.6 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.8 0.8 1
No antibiotics (n=61) No antibiotics (n=61)
2 3 12 12 30 30
Follow-up (months) Follow-up (months)
18 18 24 24 0.4 0.4
Greatest benefit in first 7 days
Prophylactic Antibiotics Reduce Recurrent Variceal Hemorrhage
Prophylactic Antibiotics Decrease Rebleeding Risk and Improve Survival
No antibiotics No antibiotics Infection Infection 20 20
%
40 40 60 60 Death Death Rebleeding Rebleeding Antibiotics Antibiotics
Bernard et al., Hepatology 1999 Bernard et al., Hepatology 1999 Hou M-C et al., Hepatology 2004 Hou M-C et al., Hepatology 2004
* * * * *
* p<0.05 * p<0.05