[Hemorrhages from the gastrointestinal tract in middle-aged and elderly patients--the diagnostic-treatment procedures and mortality dynamics].

Hemorrhages from the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract pose serious surgical problems because of their rather elevated incidence, diverse etiopathogenesis, difficulties in diagnostic and therapeutic approach, and last but not least, owing to the high mortality rate. The incidence of patients with ulcers amount to 420 per 100,000 population, with those in advanced and old-age accounting for 15-40 per cent of the total number of affections. In this contingent ulcers run a course associated with a number of peculiarities conditioned by severe lesions, caused by an acute and prolonged blood loss, not infrequently associated with a serious co-morbidity typical of this age. For this reason periodic analysis of lethality due to hemorrhages in the upper segments of the gastrointestinal tract contribute greatly: to evaluate the factors affecting thanatogenesis of this particular disease. establish the dynamic pattern of mortality, and specify the therapeutic tactics influencing such dynamics.