Endoscopic findings and outcomes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding patients in northern Iran population referred to the emergency department

Gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the reasons that patients referred to the emergency department. In the majority of these patients, the bleeding stops spontaneously but some of them are high risk patients who may experience complications and may need endoscopic and surgical treatment. Mismanagement of these cases leads to high mortality. Different studies evaluated the causes of Upper GI bleeding but there is not any information about the distribution of these reasons in north of Iran. Methods and material. This prospective study included patients with history of upper gastrointestinal bleeding between January 2017 and December 2018. A total of 249 patients underwent endoscopy for UGIB and the data were studied. Follow up was done for occurrence of re-bleeding or mortality. Results. Our study revealed that the most common cause of upper GI bleeding was duodenal ulcer and gastric ulcer. Antrum was the main anatomical site for gastric ulcer. After the 15 days follow up in 17 (6.8 %) patients mortality existed and rebleeding was found in 11 (4.4 %) patients and the need for surgery in 3 (1.2 %) patients. Conclusions. Like many parts of the world the most common source of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in our study was peptic ulcer diseases. Our study revealed that despite all diagnostic and treatment procedures still there is mortality (6.8 % mortality existed) due to GI bleeding.