Prospective randomized trial of emergency portacaval shunt and emergency medical therapy in unselected cirrhotic patients with bleeding varices
Marshall J. Orloff, Richard H. Bell, Mark S. Orloff, William G. M. Hardison, A. Gerson Greenburg – 1 October 1994 – A prospective randomized trial was conducted in unselected, consecutive patients with bleeding esophageal varices resulting from cirrhosis comparing (1) emergency portacaval shunt performed within 8 hr of initial contact (21 patients) with (2) emergency medical therapy (intravenous vasopressin and esophageal balloon tamponade) followed in 9 to 30 days by elective portacaval shunt in survivors (22 patients).