Endoscopic therapy and early elective operation as a therapeutic regimen in ulcer bleeding

In a prospective protocol we treated 63 consecutive patients admitted to our surgical department with bleeding gastroduodenal ulcers between January 1986 and December 1987. The therapeutic regimen included emergency endoscopy in all cases. Active Forrest Ia or II hemorrhage was treated endoscopically with submucosal injection. Endoscopic control of hemorrhage was achieved in all but one case. Low-risk ulcers, e.g. Forrest II without visible vessel and III or ulcers caused by antirheumatic drug medication were treated definitively by therapeutic endoscopy (31 patients). Ulcers with high risk of rebleeding even after endoscopic therapy underwent additional early elective operation. Thirty patients were treated surgically by this means. Two patients required emergency operation because of failure to control the bleeding (Ia and second rebleeding) endoscopically. The overall mortality of the surgically treated patients was 6% (2/32). The mortality of the therapeutic endoscopy was 0%. Thus, the mortality of the overall group was 3%. The major advantages of this concept were: low mortality rates, elimination of rebleeding in the follow-up period, optimal conditions for the surgical therapy resulting in low death-rates and a reduced need for transfusions.