Aftab Ahmed, Lutuf Ali, Lal Shehbaz, Shua Nasir, Syed Raza Hussain Rizvi, Muhammad Zaeghum Aman, Zain Ali.
The prevalence of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding and the factors causing hemorrhage as observed at a tertiary health care centre in Karachi, Pakistan.
Pak J Surg Jan ;33(1):36-40.

Objective: The aim of our study is to determine the prevalence of esophageal varices in patients presenting with complaint of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding at a tertiary health care centre in Karachi, Pakistan. Method: The type of study is a cross sectional study, conducted for a period of six months from April 2015 to September 2015 at a tertiary care centre in Karachi Pakistan. The patient population consisted of 120 patients, who presented to the accident and emergency department with complaints of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding, after taking a detailed history and performing comprehensive clinical examination, the patients data was collected in a pre designed proforma, and after taking a duly informed consent all patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy to find out the cause for bleeding, data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Results: Out of the total study population of 120 patients, 71(59.16%) were males and 49(40.83%) were females, having a mean age of 47.8 ± 12 years, with an age range of 20 – 80 years. 73(60.83%) patients presented with combined hematemesis and melena while 26(21.66%) presented with melena alone as the initial presentation and 21(17.5%) presented with hematemesis alone as the initial presentation of upper gastrointestinal bleeding episode. 60(50%) patients had bleeding from esophageal varices as the source of hemorrhage as obsekrved on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Conclusion: According to the results of our study the most common cause for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in our setup was oesophageal varices.

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