PESHAWAR, Jan 9: Experts on Monday submitted their recommendations regarding the management of variceal bleeding, the most fatal form of gastro-intestinal loss of blood, here on Monday.

“The final report would take two months. After that we would be able to develop national guidelines for the treatment of variceal bleeding”, said, Dr Javed Iqbal Farooqui, chairman of the National Consensus Workshop on the Development of National Practice Guidelines and Management of Variceal Bleeding on Monday.

“About 80-90 per cent of the people suffering from variceal bleeding happen to be hepatitis patients. We can decrease the incidence of variceal bleeding by creating awareness about preventive measures of hepatitis”, he said.

The two-day workshop was organised by the NWFP chapter of the Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology (PSG).

The workshop was attended by 60 delegates from the all over the country. Dr Farooqui said that the variceal bleeding caused death because it was unstoppable and the only way to get rid of it was prevention of hepatitis.

He said that during two days of discussions, the meeting had developed guidelines for the management of the disease, but said that these recommendations and guidelines would be reviewed by foreign experts.

A National Consensus Committee had been formed to receive recommendations regarding the guidelines from experts, who would then notify them, he said.

Referring to the causes of hepatitis, he said that unscreened blood transfusion, use of contaminated syringes and piercing of ears and nose with contaminated needles were among the major causes of hepatitis. He said that the treatment of hepatitis was costly and its occurrence entailed dire repercussions.

PSG’s Dr Hamayun Zafar urged the people to avoid shaving at barbers’ shops and ask barbers to use clean blades, insist on oral medications rather than injections and avoid circumcision of children through traditional.

Dr Najibul Haq, principal of the Peshawar Medical College (PMC), said that gastroesophageal variceal bleeding was the most common cause of gastro-intestinal bleeding in Pakistan, occurring in 25 to 35 per cent of patients with cirrhosis and accounted for 8- to 90 per cent of bleeding episodes in these patients.

According to him, variceal bleeding was associated with more substantial morbidity and mortality than any other cause of gastro-intestinal bleeding, as well as with high economic burden.

“At least 30 per cent of the initial bleeding cases are fatal and as many as 70 per cent of the survivors have recurrent bleeding after a first variceal bleeding. One-year survival rate after variceal bleeding is between 32 to 80 per cent,” he said.

Prof Jan Muhammad Memon, president of the PGS, Dr Khalid Hameed, Dr Murad Ali, Dr Riaz Hussain Shah, Dr Rukhsana Javed Farooqi, Dr Alaf Khan, Dr Alamzeb Manan, Dr Changez Hakim Khan, Dr Farsheed Sartaj, Dr Mian Asadullah Jan, Dr Mohammad Sadiq Shah, Dr Pervez Khan and Dr Sultan Mahmood also spoke on the occasion.