Endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric varices accompanying abdominal external hernia

Objective To study the endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric varices and the surgical time of abdominal external hernia. Methods Location, type, diagnosis and clinical features of abdominal external hernia in 11 patients with esophagogastric varices accompanying abdominal external hernia admitted to our hospital from 2000 to 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Of the 11 patients with indirect inguinal hernia, 3 were diagnosed with left-indirect hernia, 7 with right-indirect hernia, 1 with bilateral indirect hernia, 10 with reducible hernia, and 1 with irreducible hernia accompanying umbilical hernia and hydrocele of right testis. The patients had no history of operation except 1 who had relapse after repair of hernia. The patients underwent 1.6 times of gastroscopy and 3.6 times of endoscopic treatment, during which the hernias ring was compressed or bandaged with bellyband to prevent relapse of hernia. No incarcerated hernia occurred during operation and incarcerated hernia occurred in 3 patients after operation. The incarcerated hernias were returned to enterocoelia manually. Conclusion The risk to develop incarcerated hernia increases due to multiple endoscopic treatment procedures of esophagogastric varices accompanying abdominal external hernia and gas injection. Repair of hernia should be considered before endoscopic treatment.