A case of ascending colon variceal bleeding treated with venous coil embolization

A 38-year-old female with a history of alcoholic liver cirrhosis visited our hospital with a massive hematochezia. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy did not demonstrate any bleeding source, and a colonoscopy showed a massive hemorrhage in the ascending colon but without an obvious focus. The source of the bleeding could not be found with a mesenteric artery angiography. We performed an enhanced abdominal computed tomography, which revealed a distal ascending colonic varix, and assumed that the varix was the source of the bleeding. We performed a venous coil embolization and histoacryl injection to obliterate the colon varix. The intervention appeared to be successful because the vital signs and hemoglobin laboratory data remained stable and because the hematochezia was no longer observed. We report here on a rare case of colonic variceal bleeding that was treated with venous coil embolization.