If the veins rupture, they can cause severe and life-threatening bleeding. Variceal bleeding accounts for 10-30% of all upper GI bleeds. Esophageal varices do not usually cause symptoms until a GI ...

Because the present method is easy to perform and causes less pain to patients compared to endoscopy, it is useful for following and assessing esophageal varices in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Esophageal capsule endoscopy for screening and surveillance of esophageal varices in patients with portal hypertension. Hepatology 47 , 1595–1603 (2008). Article Google Scholar ...

1 Although the risk of bleeding from gastric varices is estimated to be half that of esophageal varices ... remains controversial... A further cause for concern regarding Procaccini and colleagues ...