ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To assess whether adjuvant Chinese patent medicines (CPMs) to standard treatment could reduce recurrent bleeding after variceal bleeding in cirrhotic patients.@*METHODS@#This study retrospectively collected 555 consecutive patients who recovered from variceal bleeding. A population-based cohort study was established depending on if adjuvant CPMs were administered to prevent rebleeding. A total of 139 patients who had taken ⩾28 cumulative defined daily doses (cDDDs) of CPMs were included in the CPMs cohort, and 416 patients who used 180 cDDDs of CPMs, respectively. The median rebleeding interval in the CPMs cohort was significantly larger compared with the non-CPMs cohort (113.5 vs. 93.0 days; P=0.008).@*CONCLUSION@#Adjuvant CPMs to standard therapy can significantly reduce the incidence of variceal rebleeding and delay the time to rebleeding.