ABSTRACT

Upper gastrointestinal system bleeding is a commonly encountered medical emergency with significant morbidity and mortality. In this study we aimed to retrospectively analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients we followed-up with the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal system bleeding between 1998 to 2005. Of approximately 7000 cases admitting to the Department of Emergency of GATA during the study period, 898 cases diagnosed to have upper gastrointestinal system bleeding were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was was 52.5±21.3 years (16- 103 years). Of all the patients 480 were male (53.5%) and 418 were female (46.5%), and 335 were married (37.3%) and 563 were single (62.7%). Of the cases most (n=350) were military persons' family (39%). When analyzed according to educational status, most of the people (241 cases) graduated from high school (26.8%). When the patients were examined according to endoscopic diagnoses, cases with duodenal ulcer (n=289) were the largest group (32.2%). Number of cases with first bleeding was 636 (70.8%). Mean hospitalization period of the patients was 4.1±6.2 days. Socio-demographic characteristics of the patients play an important role in mortality and morbidity of the patients with upper gastrointestinal system bleeding. Our results are in accordance with the literature findings.