Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: a review of 10,000 cases

A total of 10,000 patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endosopy examination between August 1979 and October 1994 at Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Addis Ababa. The major indications were dyspepsia (59.4%), upper gastrointestinal bleeding (18%) and liver disease (10.8%). The other indications include dysphagia (2.2%), gastric outlet obstruction (2.1%), postoperative dyspeptic symptoms (1.9%), weight loss and/or anemia (1.4%), epigastric mass (0.6%) and odynophagia 0.2%. The mean age of the patients and their sex ratio was 36 years and 2:1, respectively. Twenty eight percent of the patients had normal findings. The commonest abnormal findings include duodenal ulcer (41%), esophageal varices (9%), acute gastritis (6%), duodenitis (3.4%), and reflux esophagitis (2.3%). Benign gastric ulcer was rare. The ratio of duodenal ulcer to gastric ulcer was 19.1%. Duodenal ulcer (45.6%), esophageal varices (15.6) and acute gastritis (5.7%) were found to be the commonest causes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The endoscopy or histology diagnosis of cancer in both the esophagus and stomach was 2.8% and 1.3%, respectively. The agreement between endoscopy and histology in the diagnosis of esophageal and gastric cancer was 80%. There was no major complication related to endoscopy or premeditation. Endoscopy is a fairly accurate and safe procedure and therefore should be available and applied widely for the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal diseases in Ethiopia.