Survival and emergency surgery in upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

The outcome in terms of survival and frequency of emergency surgical intervention for all patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding during a two-year period was evaluated. During the period early oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy was recommended as a routine procedure. A total of 277 patients were hospitalized with upper gastrointestinal bleeding and in 206 patients endoscopy was performed. The point of time for endoscopy did not affect the diagnostic yield. If variceal bleeders were excluded the total mortality was 7.1%. The operative frequency was low, 11%. The postoperative mortality was 45.2%. The postoperative morality occurred among patients over 60 years and the mortality during conservative treatment was obviously difficult to avoid. The benefit of endoscopy was expressed as a low operation frequency without negative effects on the total mortality.