[Emergency endoscopy in acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage: Does the effectiveness justify the effort?]

On the basis of a common care of patients with acute upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage by internists, surgeons, and anaesthetists lasting several years advantages and disadvantages of emergency endoscopy are analysed from the standpoint of effectivity. High diagnostic ability, help in the decision concerning operative or conservative activity, the influence of the operative-tactic approach and the furthering influence on the close cooperation of the specialities are to be emphasized. Criteria of effectivity, such as mortality rates, duration of the stay in the hospital and frequency of relapsing haemorrhages underlie many factors of influence. They express results of therapy, to which emergency endoscopy may at present contribute only limitedly. The basic decision to medical activity -- active striving for a rapid, exact diagnosis or waiting when the diagnosis is uncertain -- does not inessentially influence the standpoint in the controversy about the emergency endoscopy.