Abstract
Objective; To determine the efficacy of Terlipressin in upper GI bleeding due to liver cirrhosis.
Methodology: This cases series study was carried out at Department of Medicine, Services Hospital, Lahore during July to December 2017. In the present study, the cases of liver cirrhosis of both genders having age of 30 to 60 years were included. Liver cirrhosis and GI bleeding were assessed by history and medical record of shrunken liver and portal vein size of more than 1 cm. The cases with portal hypertension other than cirrhosis and those with excessive NSAID use were excluded. The Terlipressin was given in the form of intravenous injection in dose of 1mg every 6 hour. These cases were then followed and efficacy was labelled as yes where there was no bleeding for another 12 hours. The total therapy was given for 3 days.
Results: In this study, 100 cases of upper GI bleed due to cirrhotic liver were selected with mean age of 53.58 +/- 10.23 years. There were 61 (61%) males and 39 (39%) females in this study. Out of 100, 38 (38%) were in Child Pugh Class B while 62 (62%) cases in class C. The efficacy of Terlipressin in out study was noted in 58 (58%) of the cases. There was no significant difference in terms of age groups; however, the efficacy was better in age group 30-50 years, where it was seen in 14 (63.63%) of cases with p = 0.15. The efficacy was significantly high in cases that were in child class B where it was seen in 26 (68.42%) out of 38 cases with p = 0.02.
Conclusion; Terlipressin has been proved with good efficacy in cases with upper GI bleeding and its efficacy is significantly better with child pugh class B.