Portal colopathy: prospective study of colonoscopy in patients with portal hypertension

Twenty patients with portal hypertension related to a variety of causes prospectively underwent colonoscopy for hematochezia (n = 10), hemoccult positive stool and anemia (n = 9), or polyp found with screening flexible sigmoidoscopy (n = 2) (includes 1 patient with anemia/heme-positive stool). Twelve patients (60%) had previously undergone a course of sclerotherapy, and 10 (50%) had endoscopic evidence of congestive gastropathy. Colonoscopic findings included mucosal abnormalities resembling multiple vascular ectasias in 14 (70%), 4 of whom also had endoscopic features suggesting a mild, chronic colitis. Neither signs of chronic liver disease nor stigmata suggestive of more severe portal hypertension correlated with the colonoscopic findings. Two patients required heater probe therapy for actively oozing lesions resembling vascular ectasias and an additional two patients sclerotherapy for bleeding midrectal varices. Although likely an overestimate of the frequency, this study suggests that portal colopathy can occur in portal hypertension. Vascular ectasialike lesions in such settings may be associated with acute as well as chronic gastrointestinal bleeding and may require pharmacological, directed endoscopic, or portal decompressive therapy. Additional studies are required to determine not only the pathophysiology but also the true frequency of this entity.