title: Mortality from acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the United kingdom: does it display a "weekend effect"?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An increased mortality in patients presenting to hospital at weekends has been observed for several medical conditions. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between weekend presentation to hospital following acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding and mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected on 6,749 patients presenting to 212 UK hospitals. A logistic regression model was used to examine the relationship between weekend presentation to hospital and mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients presenting at the weekend were more likely to present with shock (39% vs. 36%), hematemesis (41% vs. 38%), and receive red cell transfusion (42% vs. 39%). Only 38% of those presenting at weekends underwent endoscopy within 24 h compared with 55% admitted on weekdays (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.41-0.54), although the proportion of all patients receiving endoscopic therapy was identical at weekends compared with weekdays (24%). After adjustment for confounders, there was no evidence of a difference between weekend and weekday mortality (OR=0.93; 95% CI=0.75-1.16). Similar results were seen when restricting the analysis to those patients who underwent endoscopy (n=5,004) (OR=0.87, 95% CI=0.65-1.16). There was no difference in the OR for mortality for weekend compared with weekday presentation between patients presenting to hospitals with an out-of-hours (OOH) endoscopy rota compared with those presenting to hospitals without such a facility.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this large prospective study of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the United Kingdom, there was no increase in mortality for weekend vs. weekday presentation despite patients being more critically ill and having greater delays to endoscopy at weekends. Provision of an OOH endoscopy service at weekends in the remaining UK hospitals may not lead to further reductions in case fatality, although a reduction in OOH endoscopy provision from current levels could lead to an increase in mortality at weekends.
authors: NHS Blood and Transplant, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. vipul.jairath@nhsbt.nhs.uk
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Jairath
authors: B C
authors: BC
authors: Kahan
authors: R F A
authors: RF
authors: Logan
authors: S A
authors: SA
authors: Hearnshaw
authors: S P L
authors: SP
authors: Travis
authors: M F
authors: MF
authors: Murphy
authors: K R
authors: KR
authors: Palmer