Post written by Ahmad Najdat Bazarbashi, MD, from Washington University in St. Louis School, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

The focus of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of EUS-guided coil therapy for the management of gastric varices through a multicenter retrospective collaborative effort in the United States—the first of its kind.

There has been an expanding role of EUS-guided coil embolization for the management of gastric varices, but only in limited, small-scale, single-center studies. It was important to conduct this study to provide a pooled analysis of various centers in the United States performing this procedure with the hope of showing readers concrete data to support the safety and efficacy of this novel intervention.

This study confirms high technical (100%) and clinical success (88%) rates for EUS-guided coil therapy for the management of gastric varices with an overall low rate of adverse events. It also provides insight into EUS-guided coil therapy for patients who have repeat bleeding after initial EUS intervention. Finally, it demonstrates a steep learning curve for this technique with no difference in outcomes between high- or low-volume centers.

We hope this study adds to the current literature on the role of EUS-guided coil therapy for the management of gastric varices and offers a framework for centers interested in adopting this technique and an impetus for future comparative, larger-scale studies.

Read the full article online.

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