Cost of treatment of bleeding esophageal varices
R. Chung and J. W. Lewis
We examined the cost of four methods of treatment of bleeding esophageal
varices--medical treatment, sclerotherapy, variceal ligation operations,
and portal systemic shunts--in 49 consecutive patients from 1977 to 1979,
and correlated the two-year outcome with cost. We found that, despite bias
imposed by selection, the cost per patient and cost per survivor at two
years was lowest in patients who received sclerotherapy, even though they
were more seriously ill than patients who received other treatments.
Patients treated with sclerotherapy also had the lowest mortality during
primary hospitalization and the lowest readmission rate during a two-year
period.
