Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in operated stomach: outcome of 105 cases

To compare the causes and clinical outcome of patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGB) and a history of gastric surgery to those with AUGB but without a history of gastric surgery in the past.

The causes and clinical outcome were compared between 105 patients with AUGB and a history of gastric surgery, and 608 patients with AUGB but without a history of gastric surgery.

Patients who underwent gastric surgery in the past were older (mean age: 68.1+/-11.7 years vs 62.8+/-17.8 years, P = 0.001), and the most common cause of bleeding was marginal ulcer in 63 patients (60%). No identifiable source of bleeding could be found in 22 patients (20.9%) compared to 42/608 (6.9%) in patients without a history of gastric surgery (P = 0.003). Endoscopic hemostasis was permanently successful in 26 out of 35 patients (74.3%) with peptic ulcers and active bleeding or non-bleeding visible vessel. Nine patients (8.6%) were operated due to continuing or recurrent bleeding, compared to 23/608 (3.8%) in the group of patients without gastric surgery in the past (P = 0.028). Especially in peptic ulcer bleeding patients, emergency surgery was more common in the group of patients with gastric surgery in the past (9/73 (12.3%) vs 19/360 (5.3%), P = 0.025). Moreover surgically treated patients in the past required more blood transfusion (3.3+/-4.0 vs 1.5+/-1.7, P = 0.0001) and longer hospitalization time (8.6+/-4.0 vs 6.9+/-4.9 d, P = 0.001) than patients without a history of gastric surgery. Mortality was not different between the two groups (4/105 (3.8%) vs 19/608 (3.1%)).

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding seems to be more severe in surgically treated patients than in non-operated patients.