[Fiberoptic endoscopic examination in the diagnosis and therapy of digestive hemorrhages of the supra-mesocolic tract. Retrospective analysis of 46 cases].

Forty-six cases of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage examined during three years have been revised. The patients were 39 men and 7 women, from 22 to 73 years old: twenty-six of them were first examined by endoscopic technique, while in the other twenty-ones the first examination was a bariummeal X-ray. All the twenty-six patients of the first group were examined within 48 hours from admission to hospital while the twenty patients of the second group could be examined not before the third day from admission. The evaluation of our results has confirmed an overt superiority of endoscopic versus radiologic technique, mainly in detecting non-ulcerative mucosal alterations responsible of bleeding.