Upper gastrointestinal bleedings: etiological, clinical and diagnostic aspects

Written by Szőcs Katalin, Szalman Krisztina, Bancu Ligia Ariana, Brassai Zoltán

Upper gastrointestinal bleedings (UGIB) represent very frequent emergencies in gastroenterology. The mortality in UGIB still remained 5-15% in the last few decades. The aim of our study was a complex evaluation of UGIB cases. We studied the registry of the 2nd Medical Clinic from Târgu Mureş between 2005 and 2009. We found 107 UGIB cases during this period, and with statistical analyses we considered the severity of bleeding, scoring systems to select high-risk patients in rebleeding, etiology, clinical manifestations and comorbidity, and the role of endoscopy in the diagnosis of bleeding. We found UGIB to be more frequent in male patients, after the age of 50. As etiological diagnosis we found in most of the cases peptic ulcer disease, and melaena as clinical manifestation. Preendoscopic evaluation, the prediction of rebleeding using clinical scoring systems and the application of urgent therapeutical methods are the critical points in decreasing the mortality and morbidity in UGIB. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy must be used for the diagnosis in patients presenting with UGIB.

 

Keywords: upper gastrointetsinal bleeding, mortality, endoscopy

Print