The relative high incidence of rebleeding during the course of injection
sclerotherapy requires attempts at its improvement. Forty consecutive patients with
bleeding oesophageal
varices underwent either injection
sclerotherapy only or injection
sclerotherapy with an adjuvant fixed daily dose of
propranolol (40 mg
tds) in a single-blind randomized controlled trial. They were injected on a weekly basis until
varices were eradicated at which time
propranolol was withdrawn. Patients were then followed-up for a period of two years. The results showed that ad to a decline in resting pulse rate by a median of 23.9%. Patients undergoing injection
sclerotherapy with adjuvant
propranolol required fewer injection sessions for variceal eradication than patients undergoing injection
sclerotherapy alone (8 versus 11: p > 0.05). Patients undergoing injection
sclerotherapy with adjuvant
propranolol experienced more variceal recurrences than those undergoing injection
sclerotherapy alone (25% versus 13.3%, p > 0.05). Five of 20 patients undergoing sclero-therap with adjuvant
propranolol rebleed as compared to 6 of 20 y patients undergoing injection
sclerotherapy only (p > 0.05). The probability of rebleeding and survival was similar in both groups (p > 0.05).