Duodenal varices. Report of 13 cases.

Only a few cases of Duodenal Varices (DV) have been reported in the world literature mostly by radiological studies, at operations, or autopsies. Alberti described DV for the first time in 1931. The visualisation of DV by fiberoptic endoscope was first made in 1973 by Kunisaki et al. (one case) and later by Kunert and Ottenjann in 1976 (one case). In this study we present 13 cases of DV diagnosed in the period from June 1979 to May 1983 out of 5664 endoscopic examinations performed in the Endoscopy Unit of Riyadh Central Hospital and giving a prevalence of 1:435. 598 cases of Oesophageal Varices (OV) were found in these series, so that the relation DV:OV is 1:46 in this study. The etiology of DV is mostly liver fibrosis due to schistosomiasis (9 cases). In the rest of the cases we found av-malformation (one case), cancer of the head of pancreas (one case) and Hodgkin's disease with enlarged lymph-nodes and ascites in association with chronic duodenal ulcer (one case). In one case the etiology remained unknown. 4 patients had no oesophageal involvement (isolated DV). The cases will be discussed in detail.