Venous ectasia of gastric antrum

Abstract

Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) is an uncommon but often severe cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. GAVE may be asymptomatic or accompanied by clinical anemia or overt gastrointestinal bleeding. The diagnosis is mainly based on pathognomonic endoscopic pattern, defined as «watermelon stomach», located in antrum. Autoimmune disorders aye co-existing in about 60% of patients with GAVE, chirrosis in about 30%, and cardiac or renal failure in 10%.The "golden standarden" treatment of GAVE is endoscopic argon plasma coagulation (APC). There is poor information about diagnostics and treatment of GAVE in the domestic literature. The analysis of the presented materials shows that correct diagnostics takes much time and the choice of the optimum optimal treatment strategy encounters difficulty. Our experience with diagnostics and therapy of GAVE is based on the treatment of 4 patients. The diagnosis of GAVE was established within the period from 5 months to 1.5 years after onset of the disease. In two cases, GAVE was asymptomatic. Two patients with severe anemia completed endoscopic treatment; in one case, APC was supplemented by laser coagulation and bipolar coagulation. The implementation of laser coagulation caused some technical difficulties. Treatment of both patients was successful. Endoscopy pivotal for diagnosis of GAVE is the main method of its treatment. Due to the large number of diagnostic errors and the importance of correct diagnosis of GAVE, it is necessary to pay attention to this issue in training programs for endoscopists.