Varices drainage in Preston, Lancashire

[Latchford]

Hi, I'm based in the Preston area and am waiting for my varices to be drained. I was wondering how long people wait before being called into hospital to have this done. My consultant is Dr Shields at RPH.

I have been told a day service will be started this year some time.

[AyrshireK]

Not sure what you mean by having your varices drained. The usual method of treating varices is to band them during an endoscopy procedure. This is usually done as an outpatient and you just go in for a few hours (procedure takes minutes but if you have the heartily recommended sedation then you'll be in a few hours till you sleep it off).

Hubby had a massive variceal bleed and had his first procedure done in hospital, on release he was back in again within a few weeks to do more banding. In all over a period of a couple of years he has had 42 bands applied to varices and just goes in once a year for check up now as his are currently deemed to be eradicated. It depends on what state your varices are in as to how often or how close together your banding appointments are (some hospitals don't do theraputic banding at all whereas others go for the 'aggressive' banding regime every 5 weeks or so to get them all dealt with).

All the best,

Katie

[Latchford in reply to AyrshireK]

Thanks for this I've corrected the post. I meant ascites.

[AyrshireK in reply to Latchford]

Got you. Replied to your other post too.

Katie