Background: Electronic data capture (EDC) in academic health care organizations provides an opportunity for the management, aggregation, and secondary use of research and clinical data. It is especially important in resource-constrained environments such as the South African public health care sector, where paper records are still the main form of clinical record keeping.
Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the strategies followed by the University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Health Sciences (Wits FHS) during the period from 2013 to 2021 to overcome resistance to, and encourage the adoption of, the REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture; Vanderbilt University) system by academic and clinical staff.
Objective: This study tested the validity of the hypothesis that eradication of esophageal varices by repeated injection sclerotherapy would reduce recurrent variceal bleeding and death from bleeding varices in a high-risk cohort of alcoholic patients with cirrhosis.
Summary Background Data: Although banding of esophageal varices is now regarded as the most effective method of endoscopic intervention, injection sclerotherapy is still widely used to control acute esophageal variceal bleeding as well as to eradicate varices to prevent recurrent bleeding. This large single-center prospective study provides data on the natural history of alcoholic cirrhotic patients with bleeding varices who underwent injection sclerotherapy.