Characteristics of patients with bleeding peptic ulcer requiring emergency endoscopy and aggressive treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with an ulcer and active bleeding or a nonbleeding, visible vessel are high-risk for further bleeding and should receive aggressive therapy. In this study, we tried to identify clinical parameters that predict these high-risk groups.


METHODS
Over a 7-month period, 16 clinical parameters were analyzed prospectively in 316 patients with bleeding peptic ulcer. A multivariate analysis was used to find the independent predictors for the high-risk patients.


RESULTS
A total of 114 patients (36%) was found to have a spurting hemorrhage (eight patients), oozing hemorrhage (27 patients), or a nonbleeding visible vessel (79 patients). Using an univariate analysis, a statistically significant predictor was the appearance of coffee ground fluid or blood from the nasogastric tube. This predictor also emerged as an independent factor (odds ratio, 0.4333; 95% confidence interval, 0.263-0.714).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with bleeding peptic ulcer who have coffee ground fluid or blood from the nasogastric tube should receive an emergency endoscopy and aggressive treatment.
Perng
C L
CL
Department of Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Lin
H J
HJ
Chen
C J
CJ
Lee
F Y
FY
Lee
S D
SD
Lee
C H
CH
D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010438:Peptic Ulcer Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors