Objective: The purpose of our investigation was to evaluate the usefulness of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO) for gastric varices.
Material and methods: Between December 2010 and March 2011, four patients underwent B-RTO for gastric varices that occurred after portal hypertension. In all, after insertion of sclerotic agents, CBCT was used to observe distribution of the sclerotic agent in the gastric varices and afferent gastric veins. Investigated was whether the entire gastric varices and afferent gastric veins were confirmed by retrograde venography performed when the sclerotic agent was infused and by CBCT obtained after insertion of the sclerotic agent.
Results: On CBCT obtained after insertion of the sclerotic agent, distribution of sclerotic agents in the gastric varices and afferent gastric veins was clearly visualized. On the other hand, retrograde venography was inferior in detecting the area of distribution of sclerotic agents and the afferent gastric veins.
Conclusion: Application of CBCT is helpful to precisely evaluate the distribution of sclerotic agents in B-RTO.