ESOPHAGEAL VARICES AND VASCULAR SPIDERS (NEVI ARANEOSI) IN CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER

Abstract

The vascular spider or spider angioma (nevus araneosus) has been recognized as an important clinical finding in the diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver. Though it may be found during pregnancy, in viral hepatitis, and occasionally in a normal person, the diagnosis of cirrhosis must be considered in most cases in which spiders appear and especially in those in which they are multiple. Dr. William Bean deserves a great deal of credit for publicizing this entity in a series of papers 1 and for describing its historical and clinical development. The mechanism of its appearance in chronic liver disease, however, is not at all clear. Our interest in the vascular