[Emergency endoscopy in upper digestive tract hemorrhage]

The experience in upper G.I. tract hemorrhage accumulated during the first 30 months in the Emergency Hemorrhage Unit at the Hospital Posadas is here reported over a total of 428 endoscopies, we found 518 lesions. Ninety one (21%) presented with active bleeding, and 317 (76%) were considered as the probable cause of the bleeding. In 37 cases (8.6%) the site of bleeding was detected, but the diagnosis wasn't done. The most frequent lesions were erosive gastritis (21.2%), gastric ulcer (20%), erosive duodenitis (12.6%), duodenal ulcer (12.15%) and esophageal varices (12.12%) the diagnosis was normal 14.7% of the cases. One hundred and sixty one patients were admitted to the hospital; on 143 (88.82%) patients the original diagnosis was confirmed but it was modified in 18 patients (11.18%) by surgery or repeated endoscopy. During the last 20 months of the period the accuracy diagnostic of the endoscopy increased 95%. When compared with the first 10 months (76%) this fact shows, the importance of the experience acquired by the endoscopist. Most of the patients received medical treatment with a mortality of 9.02% and 25 patients received surgical treatment with a mortality of 28%.