Treatment of bleeding esophageal varices by portoazygos disconnection and esophageal transection with the button of Boerema and EEA stapler: ten years' experience.

We present 64 patients with bleeding esophageal varices who have been treated with portoazygos disconnection, devascularization of the esophagogastric junction, and esophageal transection with the button of Boerema (32 patients) and EEA stapler (32 patients). The patients were treated between 1973 and 1983. Their ages ranged from 50 to 70 years. Based on Child's classification, 26 (37.5%) of the patients fell into class A, 35 (54.6%) in class B, and five (7.8%) in class C. These patients were also divided into three subgroups: group I--21 patients (32.8%) underwent emergency operations; group II--40 patients (62.5%) underwent semiemergency operations; and group III--three patients (4.7%) underwent elective operations. The perioperative mortality rate was 10.8%. With the Fischer exact test, we found the combined death rate of Child's classes A and B to be significantly lower than that for class C patients. The duration of follow-up ranged from 6 months to 9 years (average 32.9 months) in the 80% of the patients that we were able to follow. There was a 6.5% incidence of recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding and a 28% incidence of late encephalopathy. The incidence of transitory dysphagia was 40% when the button of Boerema was used as compared with 9% when the EEA stapler was used. The surgical approach presented herein is an attractive alternative to portosystemic decompression for patients in whom hepatic dysfunction is complicated by uncontrolled variceal hemorrhage.