[Emergency endoscopy in patients with chronic alcohol abuse]

In this study we evaluated the findings of emergency endoscopy--carried out because of acute bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract--in 58 patients with chronic abuse of alcohol. These findings were compared with those bleeding sources which were seen within the emergency endoscopy of 199 patients without abuse of alcohol. Among the collective of the chronic alcoholics in 37,9% the bleeding lesion was found in the esophagus. In one third of the alcoholics with proved liver cirrhosis and esophageal varices another bleeding source than esophageal varices existed. In two patients of this collective, besides bleeding esophageal varices another more distally located bleeding source could be found. This shows the necessity to examine also stomach and duodenum in order to exclude an additional bleeding lesion, even when bleeding out of these varices is endoscopically proved. Erosive alterations in the area of the stomach and duodenum were observed very frequently when multiple lesions existed.