Causes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in Thai patients: review of 5,000 upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

Upper gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed in 5,000 patients who presented with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage during a period of 20 years (between January 1973 and December 1992). The causes of bleeding were: peptic ulcer (G.U. & D.U.) in 51.24 per cent; acute mucosal lesion in 31.61 per cent; variceal bleeding in 8.20 per cent; Mallory-Weiss tears in 4.54 per cent; cancerous bleeding in 1.66 per cent; gastric polyps in 0.28 per cent and normal endoscopy in 2.46 per cent. The patients ages ranged from 12 to 91 years old and male to female ratio was 3.3: 1. The lesions found were 61.28 per cent in the stomach, 20.78 per cent in the duodenum and 15.48 per cent in the esophagus. The causes of bleeding could be detected in 97.54 per cent by endoscopy. No significant complications were encountered in the examinations. It was concluded that panendoscopy is a safe and useful procedure and should be done routinely as the primary diagnostic approach in the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding.