Recurrent bleeding from cutaneous venous collaterals in portal hypertension.

In portal hypertension, three types of cutaneous portosystemic collaterals may develop: the 'classical' caput Medusae, enterostomal varices and scar or adhesion-related abdominal collaterals. Two patients were treated with severe and recurrent bleeding from adhesion-related collaterals, a complication not reported previously. In the first patient bleeding was only controlled by mesocaval shunt operation; the second patient suffered no further recurrence after local sclerotherapy.