Endoscopic sclerotherapy of esophageal varices in pediatric patients

: Endoscopic sclerotherapy was performed for esophageal variceal sclerosis in 7 children, aged 18 months to 11 years. Five of them had cavernomatous portal degeneration and the other two hepatic cirrhosis. The technique used was intra- and perivariceal with ethanolamine oleate in order to get the decrease or disappearance of the variceal veins. Two of the patients showed retrosternal pain and fever after the sclerosis procedure. This preliminary report shows that endoscopic sclerosis of esophageal varices is a good procedure to control acute bleeding and to prevent its onset in children.