[Acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage: prevention of complications through intensive care]

During acute gastrointestinal haemorrhage patients with coexistent multimorbidity are at excessive risk. It seems to be reasonable to identify predominant cardiopulmonary risk factors and those risks induced by recurrent bleeding. Invasive haemodynamic monitoring and application of a pulmonary risk score could reduce the overall mortality in patients at higher risk. Intensive care management should preserve timing of elective surgical intervention in selected patients.