Estimates of costs of hospital stay for variceal and nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the United States

Objectives: Variceal (VUGIB) and nonvariceal (NVUGIB) upper gastrointestinal bleeding are prevalent causes of hospitalization. Cost estimates are needed to determine the impact of their contemporary treatments (endoscopic hemostasis and high-dose proton pump inhibition). We determined the costs of upper gastrointestinal bleeding with or without complications (rebleeding). Methods: Charges and length of stay (LOS) were obtained from the United States Nation-wide Inpatient Sample. We defined NVUGIB using Diagnosis Related Groups, and VUGIB using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. Results: Hospitalization costs with and without complications were $5632 and $3402 for NVUGIB, and $23,207 and $6612 for VUGIB, respectively; similarly, mean LOS were 4.4 and 2.7 days, and 15.2 and 3.8 days. Conclusion: We present hospitalization costs and LOS for VUGIB and NVUGIB with and without complications. The reliability of our estimates rests with the size and the national representativeness of the databases used, and should prove helpful for cost analyses for UGIB requiring updated national estimates.