title: [Angiography for the management of poorly controlled gastrointestinal hemorrhage--20 cases clinical observation].
abstract: Diagnostic and therapeutic angiography has demonstrated an important role in gastrointestinal hemorrhage. During the past 2 years, we performed angiography in the management of 20 patients with uncontrolled gastrointestinal bleeding. Conservative management including medication and transfusion would not appear to suffice in these patients and most patients had been evaluated to have a high operative risk in our series. Ten of the 20 patients had renal dysfunction (creatinine > 1.7 mg/dl) before angiography. The role of angiography in the management of patients with renal dysfunction remains controversial because angiography is likely to produce acute renal failure. We performed angiography to stop bleeding in these patients with renal dysfunction because they could die of blood loss. In our 20 cases, bleeding sites were identified in 14 patients. The detection rate was 70%. Thirteen of the 14 with the use of either vasopressin infusion or arterial embolization showed complete cessation of bleeding in 10 patients. Three cases failed to be controlled. One received an operation after a bleeding site was located by angiography. In our study, sepsis with renal failure was the leading cause of mortality (6 cases). Ten patients with pre-existing renal dysfunction had angiography performed and only one showed abrupt elevation of creatinine levels after angiography. He also developed sepsis. Deterioration of renal function was possibly due to angiography or more likely due to sepsis and hypovolemia. Six patients died of sepsis after angiography although 4 of these patients showed cessation of bleeding. Four cases with pre-existing renal dysfunction and without evidence of infection survived after angiographic management.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Min Shen General Hospital, Taipei, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000792:Angiography; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged