Upper gastrointestinal barium studies in the elderly: follow-up in 101 patients.

A A retrospective study of 101 elderly patients who were referred for upper gastrointestinal barium studies showed that this led to a change of management in 36 patients. The commonest management change was endoscopic referral (10 patients). However, in only on patient did this sequence lead to surgery and this was merely palliative. Dysphagia, vomiting and weight loss were shown to be the presenting features most likely to result in an abnormal barium study. The most frequently detected abnormalities were hiatus hernia, reflux, oesophageal stricture, peptic ulcer and gastric carcinoma.