Endoscopy for upper gastrointestinal bleeding at emergency unit

From November 1, 1990 to January 31, 1991, 381 patients visited our emergency unit with the chief complaints of hematemesis (n = 153) and melena (n = 228). Of these patients, 298 (78.2%) received UGI endoscopy at the emergency unit, 29 (7.6%) received examination after they were admitted to wards, 3 (0.8%) received endoscopy at outpatient clinic and 51 (13.4%) did not have endoscopy. The percentages of endoscopic diagnoses in 330 patients who had UGI endoscopy were gastric ulcer (GU) 33.6%, duodenal ulcer (DU) 32.7%, esophageal varices (EV) 17.0%, and others 15.5%. Negative findings were noted in 3 cases and no definite bleeding source was found in 1 patient who had blood retention in stomach. The diagnostic rate of endoscopy was 98.8%. Of the 56 patients with EV, 45 (80.4%) had hematemesis; in contrast, 85 of the 108 DU patients (78.8%) complained of melena only. Of the 219 patients with bleeding GU/DU, 64 (29.2%) had endoscopic therapies and 7 (3.2%) needed operation. Sixty-four (29.2%) of them received UGI endoscopy within 6 hours after arrival. They had significantly higher frequency of stigmata of recent hemorrhage (SRH) and more endoscopic therapies than the remaining patients. The overall mortality rate in our patients was 6.0%; the mortality rate in patients with EV was much higher than that of the patients with GU/DU (19.6% vs. 1.8%, P less than 0.001). Of the 23 expired cases, only 11 died of hypovolemic shock. The remaining 12 patients died of deterioration or complications of their underlying diseases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)