ABSTRACT
Little is know about the colonic mucosal changess in patients with portal hypertension. The present study was carried out in order to assess the prevalence and factors influencing colonic mucosal changes in patients with liver cirrhosis. This study was carried out on 40 patients with liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension, divided into 2 groups, A and B, 20 patients for each group, and 10 control subjects. Patients of group B had a history of haematemesis and / or melaena and underwent regular injection sclerotherapy for oesophageal varices. Full-length colonoscopy was carried out in all cases with mucosal biopsy for histopathology. The results of this study showed that, colopathy was found in 75% of patients of group A and in 75% of patients of group B. Anorectal varices were found in 35% of patients of group A and in 40% of patients of group B, and colonic varices in 40% of group A and in 45% of group B. Portal colopathy occurs more commonly in cirrhotic patients with gastric varices, while neither oesophageal varices nor its sclerotherapy have significant relation to the development of colopathy. Portal colopathy have no significant relation to the severity of the underlying liver disease, while it have a significant relation to the presence of ocult blood in stool in patients suffering from anaemia without history of gastrointestinal bleeding. It is concluded that, colonic mucosal vascular changes in patients with liver cirrhosis is significantly high and these changes are a likely source of lower gastrointestinal bleeding