Upper gastro-intestinal tract bleeding in cirrhotic children candidates for liver transplantation.

Signs of portal hypertension, history of upper gastro-intestinal tract bleeding episodes and outcome of the latter were recorded in 76 cirrhotic children evaluated for liver transplantation. Fifty-three (70%) had varices and 22 (29%) had experienced upper gastro-intestinal tract bleeding. Of these 22, 19 bled from varices and 3 from ulcers. Non bleeding ulcers were also found in five patients bleeding from varices. Iterative sclerotherapy controlled acute variceal bleeding in all but one patient in whom emergency transplantation was performed. Six of the eight patients with ulcers were successfully treated by the H2 histamine receptor antagonist ranitidine. We conclude that iterative sclerotherapy is efficient to control acute variceal bleeding and prevents recurrent bleeding in children with end-stage liver diseases awaiting liver replacement. Bleeding asymptomatic ulcers are frequent and respond to H2 histamine receptor antagonists.