Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to bleeding from lower parts of the digestive system

Bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract represents relatively common diagnostic and therapeutic challenge in clinical work of gastroenterologists and surgeons. Bleeding from the lower GI (LGIB) is mostly caused by pathologic conditions of the colon, although the source of bleeding cannot always be exactly localized, thus rendering optimal and prompt therapy difficult. During two year period, at IlI department of the First Surgical Clinic in Belgrade, we performed 424 colonoscopies for LGIB. According to our results the exact diagnosis was established in about 76% (324 patients) showing a great similarity with the results of other published studies (varying between 74% and 89%). The most common causes of bleeding were diverticulosis (37.11%), polyposis (10.3%) and colorectal cancer (46.14%). Besides that we have mentioned some specific facts involving the diagnosis and treatment of LGIB with an accent on some rare conditions, like angiodysplasia. Review of the diagnostic procedures and treatment modalities of the LGIB is useful for everyone who meets with this type of pathology in clinical practice. The diagnostic approach and the surgical treatment of these patients may represent a great problem, since the planning of the operative procedure can be very difficult and with uncertain result. Based on the literary data and our experience we have tried to set the algorithm of the diagnostics and treatment of the LGIB.