Treatment of gastropathy and gastric antral vascular ectasia in patients with portal hypertension

Abstract

Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) and gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) are two distinct gastric mucosal lesions that may cause acute and/or chronic upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage in patients with cirrhosis. Whereas PHG is associated with portal hypertension, GAVE may present in patients without portal hypertension or liver disease. Diagnosis is made upon visualization of the characteristic lesions with upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, although the differential may be difficult at times. PHG is characterized endoscopically by a mosaic pattern with or without red signs and a proximal distribution. PHG mainly causes chronic blood loss and anemia in patients with cirrhosis but also can cause acute hemorrhage. First-line therapy for chronic hemorrhage from PHG is a nonselective beta-blocker (propranolol or nadolol) and iron supplementation. If bleeding/anemia are not controlled with these measures and the patient is transfusion-dependent, shunt therapy (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt or shunt surgery) should be considered. Management of acute bleeding from PHG, an infrequent event, should be accomplished with a vasoactive drug, somatostatin (or its analogues) or terlipressin. If bleeding responds, the patient must be switched to a nonselective beta-blocker. Shunt therapy should be considered in patients who rebleed or continue to bleed despite adequate beta-blocker therapy. GAVE is less common than PHG. It is characterized by red spots without a background mosaic pattern, typically in the gastric antrum. When lesions have a linear distribution, the lesion is called "watermelon stomach." GAVE is a cause of chronic gastrointestinal bleeding and anemia in patients with cirrhosis. If lesions are localized, first-line therapy is argon plasma coagulation. In more diffuse lesions, therapy with argon plasma coagulation is more complicated. Preliminary data suggest that cryotherapy may be a reasonable option for diffuse GAVE lesions. Neither beta-blockers nor TIPS reduces the bleeding risk in patients with GAVE and thus should not be used in this setting.