Endoscopic Prediction of Recurrent Bleeding in Peptic Ulcers

Abstract

We performed endoscopy within 24 hours of admission in 292 unselected patients admitted to the hospital for acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage. In 132 patients endoscopy revealed peptic ulcers, and in 117 full examination of the crater was possible. Visible vessels were identified in 56 patients (48 per cent); other stigmata of recent bleeding (such as oozing from the ulcer crater) were present in 21 (18 per cent), and no stigmata in 40 (34 per cent). Among the patients with either visible vessels or other stigmata of recent bleeding, 47 were randomly selected to be observed (without treatment) for evidence of further bleeding. Nineteen of 34 patients with visible vessels (56 per cent) had rebleeding, as compared with one of 13 (8 per cent) with other stigmata of recent hemorrhage; no patients with ulcers without visible vessels or other stigmata of recent hemorrhage bled further. We conclude that after bleeding occurs, visible vessels can be identified in a much higher proportion of ulcers than previously reported, and that rebleeding occurs almost exclusively in this type of ulcer, although only half the ulcers with visible vessels do in fact bleed further. (N Engl J Med. 1981; 305:915–6.)