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Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England logoLink to Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England
. 1984 Jan;66(1):30–32.

Balloon tamponade in the management of bleeding oesophageal varices.

S K Sarin, S Nundy
PMCID: PMC2493628  PMID: 6607022

Abstract

Sixty-three patients with acute variceal haemorrhage were treated with the Sengstaken-Blakemore tube (SBT). Bleeding was initially controlled with the gastric balloon in 37 patients (60%) and with both gastric and oesophageal balloons in another 17 (27%), giving overall primary success in 54 patients (87%). Sixteen (26%) patients re-bled within 24 hours of deflation of the tube. Repeat balloon tamponade helped in controlling bleeding in 9 of these. Thus, a total of 47 (75%) patients stopped bleeding with SBT. There was no mortality. The only major complication was pulmonary infection (15%), which improved with antibiotics. Use of the SBT was found to be simple, quick, low cost and attended with few complications. Its use is recommended in patients with acute variceal bleeding, especially in developing countries with limited resources.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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