Esophageal varices

Introduction: Esophageal varices

Enlarged blood vessels in the esophagus lining caused by portal hypertension. Portal hypertension often occurs when there is an obstruction to the portal vein such as is caused by liver cirrhosis.

Symptoms of Esophageal varices

• Vomiting blood
• Blackened feces
• Blackened blood in feces
• Dilated esophageal blood vessels

Medical Textbooks Online about Esophageal varices

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic Tests for Esophageal varices

• Barium swallow x-ray
• Endoscopy

Read more about tests for Esophageal varices

Wrongly Diagnosed with Esophageal varices?

• Misdiagnosis of Esophageal varices
• Underlying causes of Esophageal varices (possibly wrongly diagnosed)

Misdiagnosis and Esophageal varices

Chronic digestive conditions often misdiagnosed: When diagnosing chronic symptoms of the digestive tract, there are a variety of conditions that may be misdiagnosed. The best known, irritable bowel syndrome, is over...read more »

Intestinal bacteria disorder may be hidden cause: One of the lesser known causes of diarrhea is an imbalance of bacterial in the gut, sometimes called ...read more »

Antibiotics often causes diarrhea: The use of antibiotics are very likely to cause some level of diarrhea in patients. The reason is that antibiotics kill off not only "bad" bacteria, but can also kill the ...read more »

Food poisoning may actually be an infectious disease: Many people who come down with "stomach symptoms" like diarrhea assume that it's "something I ate" (i.e. food poisoning). In fact...read more »

Mesenteric adenitis misdiagnosed as appendicitis in children: Because appendicitis is one of the more feared conditions for a child with abdominal pain, it can...read more »

Celiac disease often fails to be diagnosed cause of chronic digestive symptoms: One of the most common chronic digestive conditions is celiac disease, a...read more »

Chronic digestive diseases hard to diagnose: There is an inherent difficulty in diagnosing the various types of chronic digestive diseases. Some of the...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Esophageal varices

Causes of Esophageal varices

• Portal hypertension

Read more about causes of Esophageal varices

More information about causes of Esophageal varices:

• Underlying causes of Esophageal varices
• Esophageal varices as a complication caused by other conditions
• Esophageal varices as a symptom

Treatments for Esophageal varices

• Balloon catheter inflation - to stop any bleeding by compression due to balloon inflation
• Injections into veins
• Surgery
• See treatment of portal hypertension

Read more about treatments for Esophageal varices

Videos for Esophageal varices

Patient Surveys for Esophageal varices

• Patient Profile Survey
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• Survey about the symptoms of your Esophageal varices
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Statistics for Esophageal varices

• Medical statistics for Esophageal varices
• Death and Mortality statistics for Esophageal varices
• Society statistics for Esophageal varices

Stories from Users Related to Esophageal varices

• esophageal varices - unusual cause

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User Interactive Forums

Read about other experiences, ask a question about Esophageal varices, or answer someone else's question, on our message boards:

• I can not get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for this?
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