Title: Streamlining esophageal variceal banding to stem hemorrhage

Team: Josephine Buchan, Vivian Lu, Joseph Liu, Nilo Saeed Tehrani

Client: Hepatology – Courtney Sherman, MD (UCSF)

Esophageal varices are large, swollen blood vessels around the esophagus. The most common cause of esophageal varices is increased pressure (portal hypertension), which most commonly results from severe scarring of the liver, known as liver cirrhosis. When scar tissue blocks the flow of blood around the liver, the body will send blood via veins in the stomach or esophagus instead, causing the small, thin-walled veins to swell and form varices. Varices are commonly treated by variceal ligation, a procedure in which tiny elastic bands are wrapped around the varices to stop variceal bleeding. Despite this treatment, variceal rebleeding is common and as a result, physicians typically recommend patients to undergo an endoscopy to check for formation of esophageal varices every two weeks.

Our unmet need centers around an improved method to treat esophageal varices in patients with cirrhosis (ages 40-70) in order to prevent future bleeding to improve patient quality of life and decrease mortality.