Any experience with BRTO?

I have had numerous esophogeal varacies which have all been treated by banding. I have now developed a gastric varice. Gastric varacies are located on the stomach and have a much higher chance of fatal bleeding out. They are usually treated by injecting glue into the gastric varice or by TIPS. Recently I suffered a bleed but it stopped on its own and its unknown if it was the GV, however its gotten my doctors (and me!) concerned.

My gastro is suggesting I undergo a technique called Ballon-occluded Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration (BRTO), which has a better outcome than the current techniques.

This technique has been used in Japan and S. Korea for 30 years with good result, and while it is superior to TIPS in several respects for treating gastric varicies, of course there are trade offs to it. I was wondering if any of our Asian members have any experience with this procedure that they could share.

Thanks!
-K

Post Edited (Kierstin) : 3/28/2013 9:11:24 PM (GMT-6)

Ah thanks. I forgot to plug in my spell checker. Turning on brain now.

I thought I recalled more than one Asian member... Oh well, does anyone have a pointer to an English language Asian liver forum? I have tons of technical info but would love personal experiences. I have to meet with the radiologist next week, and want the proper questions to ask.

-K

Kierstin,

We don't have experience exactly with BRTO, but Mike had his bleeds in his small bowel. They did a Double Balloon Enteroscopy and used a laser to cauterize the areas where it was bleeding.

The enteroscope was really thin and really long. They went from his esophagus as far as it would go, marked the spot with a dye. then went from the anus UP to the marker. The way they explained it to me, they moved a bit, blew up the two balloons, turned on a big light and the doc did whatever needed doing in that section....then he moved on. Mike was under anesthesia for HOURS.

The bleeding recurred about 3 months later so they did it again. Then it stopped. It was amazing, once he woke up he felt 100% better in the car going home. Before the procedure he was really ill. I called it "failure to thrive"...he was just done in, bleeding internally, low low platelets, low iron and felt like CRA*

And then he felt better.

I can imagine the procedure they are recommending and I hope that it works as well as Mike's procedure. No one on here has every talked about the same thing or one similar.

I Googled your procedure and it seemed new here, but there were technical articles that were pretty complete.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Carol

Post Edited By Moderator (hep93) : 3/30/2013 11:40:21 AM (GMT-6)

Connie, I tried, but had no luck. Gave up.

Carol, thanks for the pointers, I didn't see them. Those people had alot of other nasty things going on and did't really talk alot about their BRTO. Sorry to hear of that aweful experience of Mike's. As a 4-time esophageal bleeder I can empathize with his feeling like cra*.

As I said, I have tons of technical info on the procedure, just going to have to give it alot of thought. Thanks for all your help.

-K