Cyanoacrylate spray as treatment in difficult-to-manage gastrointestinal bleeding

Gastrointestinal bleeding can be a life-treating event that is managed with standard endoscopic therapy in the majority of cases. However, up to 5%-10% of patients may have persistent bleeding that does not respond to conventional measures. Several endoscopic treatment techniques have been proposed as strategies to control such cases, such as epinephrine injection, hemoclips or argon plasma coagulation, but there are certain clinical scenarios where it is difficult to achieve hemostasis even though adequate use of the available resources is made. Reasons for these failures can be associated with the lesion features, such as extent or location. The use of long-standing techniques in non-traditional scenarios, such as with cyanoacrylate for gastric varices sclerosis, has been reported with favorable results. Although new products such as TC-325 or Ankaferd Blood Stopper hemosprays may be useful, their formulations are not available worldwide. Here we present two clinical cases with very different scenarios of gastrointestinal bleeding, where the use of cyanoacrylate in spray had favorable results in uncommon indications. Cyanoacrylate used as a spray is a technique that can be used as an alternative method in emergent settings.