[Complications of endoscopic sclerosis of esophageal varices]

In recent years endoscopic sclerotherapy of esophageal varices has proliferated enormously, but the technique is not free of complications, which can be divided into three large areas, depending on the moment when they appear: complications due to technical errors, early complications and late complications. The authors analyze the complications in 105 patients who had a total of 385 sclerosis sessions. After describing the results and discussing them, it is concluded that the use of adequate material and sufficient technical experience are the best guarantee against the first type of complications, that hemorrhage is the most common early complication and that esophageal stenosis is the most frequent late complication. Finally, the existence of postsclerotherapy pseudo-polyps, which are asymptomatic, can pose a differential diagnosis with benign or malignant tumors of the distal third of the esophagus.