Clinical outcomes of nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding in Kosova.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim was to determine the sociodemographic and etiologic factors, endoscopic accuracy, treatment efficiency and clinical outcome of patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal system bleeding in Kosova.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated patients who had applied to our Gastroenterology Department between January 2006 and December 2010.

RESULTS

There were 460 eligible cases with mean age 56.85+16.18 years, while male /female ratio was 2.71/1. The greatest occurrence was at age group of 60-69 years (27.1 %). The most common clinical symptom was melena (62.6%). Comorbid diseases were present in 57, 6% of the patients. The percentage of patients using acetylsalicylic acid and /or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was 43.7%. Five point two percent were using anticoagulants. Peptic ulcer was the main cause of bleeding (82.2%) and most of them were Forrest III (41.6%). Endoscopic treatment was performed in 90 patients, primary hemostasis was achieved in 96.7% while rebleeding developed in 10% of these patients. The average length of hospital stay was 9.29+5.58 (1-35) days. Rebleeding was reported in 4.1% of all patients while the overall mortality rate was 5.7%.

CONCLUSION

Age over 60 years, previous history of gastrointestinal bleeding, treatment with anticoagulants, low hemoglobin values at presentation (<7 g/dL), hematemesis, Forrest class, localization of lesion of bleeding, comorbidities, tachycardia, transfusion requirement>2 unit, type of treatment and time of endoscopy were predictors of poor outcome in study present.