Understanding Variceal Hemorrhage: The Life-Threatening Complication of Liver Disease, Its Causes, Risks, and Treatment Options One morning, shortly after waking and getting out of bed, I began to feel nauseous and started vomiting blood. My wife took me to the hospital emergency room in a nearby town where they discovered I had a ruptured varices bleeding profusely. I was then transported by ambulance to Springfield, Missouri, for surgery where they banded the varices. The cause? My liver cirrhosis . Will it improve? No, according to my gastroenterologist, even with a new liver, the damage is irreversible. Liver cirrhosis is a progressive disease where healthy liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue, impairing liver function. This can lead to esophageal varices, enlarged veins in the esophagus caused by increased pressure in the portal vein system, often due to cirrhosis.
