Original article
English
Hussam Eddine Elmajri¹ and Abdulwahab Albarsha²
1- Al-Jala Hospital, 2- 7th of October hospital, Benghazi, Libya
JMJ Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 2007):111-115
Abstract
Background: Urgent endoscopy is recommended for all patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with upper gastrointestinal bleeding since most randomized controlled trials have shown significant benefit in terms of mortality and morbidity. However this benefit was not clearly evident in community practice. Thus we examined the effect of urgent endoscopy on the outcome of patients admitted to the ICU with upper GI bleeding in the community setting. Patients and methods: retrospective study in which the records of 205 patients admitted to the ICU of Al-Jala hospital, Benghazi with upper gastrointestinal bleeding were reviewed. The differences in mortality, length of hospital and ICU stay and the number of blood units transfused between patients who underwent endoscopy and those who did not, and between patients in whom endoscopy was performed within 12 hours and those in whom it was performed after 12 hours of hospital admission, were statistically analyzed. Results: Patients who underwent endoscopy had significantly lower mortality rate (12.5% Vs 45.9%, p < 0.0001) than those who did not. Endoscopy was also associated with less number of blood units transfusions ( 4.4 Vs 5.7, p< 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference in the length of hospital and ICU stay between those who underwent endoscopy and those who did not. There was no statistically significant difference in mortality rate, length of hospital and ICU stay and the number of units of blood transfusion between those in whom endoscopy was performed within 12 hour and those in whom endoscopy was performed after 12 hour of hospital admission. Conclusion: Urgent endoscopy performed in the community setting is associated with improved outcomes of patients admitted to ICU with upper gastrointestinal bleeding particularly in terms of mortality. Keywords: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding, Upper gastrointestinal Endoscopy Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1390