Background: Gastrointestinal angiodysplasias are associated with a high bleeding risk.
Aim: to evaluate the efficiency of argon plasma electrocoagulation in the treatment of gastrointestinal angiodysplasia and to identify predictive factors of success of this technique.
Methods: Retrospective study of patients with bleeding gastrointestinal angiodysplasia treated with argon plasma electrocoagulation in the digestive endoscopy unit of the military hospital in Tunis between January 2000 and December 2011.
Results: 69 patients with a mean age of 68.7 years were included.The endoscopic treatment resulted in a rise in hemoglobin value from 7.3 to 9.3 g/ dl (p = 0.0001) and a decrease of transfusion requirements from 2.5 to 0.1 units of packed red cells (p <0.0001). It allowed to avoid surgery for 93.6% of patients with complex medicalhistory. Recurrence of bleeding was observed in 33.3% of patients after a mean time of 12.3 months. In a multivariate analysis, no factors were independently associated with the recurrence of bleeding. The overall survival without rebleeding at 1 and 2 years were 50% and 42% respectively.
Conclusion: Argon plasma coagulation is an easy, effective and safe treatment of bleeding angiodysplasia. This technique is particularly interesting for patients with multiple medical problems, where surgical treatment could be burdened by significant morbidity and mortality risk.