Consideraciones sobre sangrado del tubo digestivo alto

Abstract

Introduction: The American College of Gastroenterology defines upper gastrointestinal bleeding as the hemorrhage coming from any part of the digestive tract that is proximal to the Treitz Ligament, which includes the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. It has an incidence of 96 cases per 100,000 habitants in the United States, and a 5%-14% mortality rate. Objective: To describe the principal etiologies of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, its pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, initial evaluation, and management. In the elaboration of this article, the databases used were ebsco, PubMed, Science Direct, and the Mexican Clinical Guidelines Catalog. Search terms used were “upper gastrointestinal bleeding”, “epidemiology”, “etiology”, “pathophysiology”, “initial management”, and “endoscopy”. Articles that described lower gastrointestinal tract were excluded. Important findings were variceal hemorrhage as the main cause in Mexico followed by peptic-ulcer disease caused by nsaid’s, a national mortality of 8.5% and the strong recommendation to begin endoscopy in the first 24 hours after patient admission whom has symptoms such as hematemesis, hematochezia, and melena.