What is the average death age for alcoholic with esophageal varices?

Answer 1

It's hard to pin down. Impossible, probably. There are variables. Let's look at them. First, esophageal varices are a symptom of liver damage - cirrhosis. Poor blood circulation in the liver due to the advance of injury to this organ from, say, alcohol causes increased "back pressure" in some parts of the circulatory system. The parts usually the most suseptable are the esophagus, stomach, duodenum and rectum. Smaller veins in one or more of those locations will be "opened up" by the increased pressure, and a thinning of the walls of the circulatory vessels there will also present. These areas now present risk of a bleed. And about the esophageal varices: is that all that's wrong? Portal hypertension, that increased pressure, must be treated. First, it is almost irrelevant that an individual who is an alcoholic has this condition. If this person continues to drink regularly, there will be other things that will begin to present. Medication can be used to increase the blood's ability to clot so that if a bleed develops, the body can react more quickly and direct medical intervention may not be necessary. A physician will be monitoring someone who is diagnosed with esophageal varices (or portal hypertension) and put on something like beta-blockers to reduce the seriousness of a bleed, should one develop. Control of the occasional bleeds could easily require visits to the ER, but a practicing alcoholic will begin developing other symptoms causing overall health to skid downhill. Not to be glib about anything so serious, but if anyone is interested in the "average death for an alcoholic with esophageal varicies" just look up the average lifespan of a practicing alcoholic. It will vary with the age of the person, when the person started drinking, how much he drinks and how long he's been at it. There are also factors associated with genetics and gender as well as individual health factors. This makes predictions of longevity very difficult - without the added factor of the esophageal varicies or other extensions of portal hypertension. The management of portal hypertension is something that is fairly "doable" from a medical standpoint. With medications that give the blood an increased ability to clot and the active involvement of the prescribing physician in oversight, things aren't hopeless. But the "management" of Alcoholism is something else again. If that issue goes unaddressed, the slope becomes slippery. And only the monitoring physician might make any accurate guess at to how long the alcoholic who continues to practice will live before something happens that medicine cannot "fix" in that indivicual. Here we can only wish that something enlightening has been sent your way along with best wishes. Got links if you want them.