Evaluation and treatment of gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage in patients with AIDS

Hemodynamically significant gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage is infrequently seen among patients with AIDS. During a 35-month period, we evaluated 37 AIDS patients with substantial gastrointestinal tract bleeding: 13 patients had upper gastrointestinal disease; 24 patients had colorectal disease. AIDS-associated lesions were identified as the etiology of the hemorrhage in 8 of 13 patients with upper and 9 of 24 patients with lower gastrointestinal tract bleeding.