A new surgical approach for the treatment of massive hemorrhage due to esophageal varices.

Experiments on dogs demonstrated that ligating the venous pedicles of the stomach, as well as placing a continuous hemostatic suture around the circumference of the stomach at the level of the upper and middle third, can be effective in stopping hemorrhage produced by induced esophagogastric varices. Subsequently, the operation was applied to ten patients with massive hemorrhage from varices resulting from severe portal hypertension. There were no operative deaths in follow-up of from six months to four years. Only one patient had minor recurrent hemorrhage at the end of the second year.