Pre-treatment hemodynamic features involved with long-term survival of cirrhotic patients after embolization of gastric fundal varices

Abstract

Purpose To clarify the pre-treatment hemodynamic features involved in the long-term survival of cirrhotic patients with gastric fundal varices (FV) after balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO). Materials and methods Eighty-one cirrhotic patients with medium- or large-grade FV treated by B-RTO were enrolled in this retrospective study. Pre-treatment flow volume ratio between gastric vein and portal trunk (GP-R) was obtained by Doppler ultrasound. Results The cumulative survival rate was 90% at 1 year, 74.8% at 3 years, 57.2% at 5 years, and 45.8% at 7 years without recurrence in a median period of 1148.5 days The survival was poorer in patients with HCC (47% at 3 years, 9.4% at 5 years, p < 0.0001) than without (89.2% at 3 years, 81.9% at 5 years, 67.5% at 7 years), in patients with Child B/C (57.7% at 3 years, 42.1% at 5 years, 28.1% at 7 years, p = 0.0016) than with Child A (91.8% at 3 years, 71.5% at 5 years, 62.1% at 7 years), and in patients with GP-R ≥ 1.0 (58.9% at 3 years, p = 0.0485) than with GP-R < 1.0 (76.3% at 3 years, 62% at 5 years, 49.6% at 7 years). Multivariate analysis identified the presence of HCC (hazard ratio, 12.486; 95% CI, 4.08–38.216; p < 0.0001), Child B/C (hazard ratio, 3.41; 95% CI, 1.594–7.15; p = 0.0051) and GP-R ≥ 1.0 (hazard ratio, 2.701; 95% CI, 1.07–6.15; p = 0.0221) as independent factors for poor prognosis. Conclusion GP-R ≥ 1.0 on Doppler ultrasound before B-RTO may be a predictive indicator for poor prognosis in cirrhotic patients with FV after B-RTO, in addition to the presence of HCC and severe liver damage.