[Clinical aspects and course of drug-induced upper digestive hemorrhage]

In a series of 500 patients admitted to hospital for upper digestive hemorrhage, the authors studied the influence of taking drugs on the clinical characteristics and course of the original disease. Taking aspirin is exceptional before rupture of esophageal varices. One may isolate a homogenous group of elderly women consuming aspirin and another anti-inflammatory drug, and bleeding from a gastric ulcer. One may also isolate another group of men, bleeding from acute gastro-duodenal lesions after taking aspirin alone. If one considers apart portal hypertension, owing to its extreme gravity, one may note that the prognosis depends on the age. One patient out of five, dies of hemorrhage after the age of 60 years. Taking an anti-inflammatory drug at this age is thus not harmless.