There are significant economic costs incurred by patients with portal hypertension-related bleeding. The current trial seeks to record and define these various economic costs. These include the costs of hospital care, physicians' services, medications, extended care services, medical supplies, and other professional services such as those provided by visiting nurses, dietitians, etc. Costs of physicians' services for the index hospitalization.
Hospital costs for all later hospitalizations.
Costs of physicians' services for all later hospitalizations. For each patient, the life expectancy of the California population of identical age and sex will be obtained from life tables for California, published yearly by the Department of Health Services. A standard discount factor will be introduced to account for the present value of future earnings. Calculations of the costs of morbidity will be based entirely on loss of earnings due to days lost from work , including days lost from full-time housekeeping for women. Other parameters of morbidity, such as limitation of activity and bed disability, are considered implicitly to the extent that they affect days lost from work.