Role of Urgent Endoscopy in Patients With Suspected Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Abstract The optimal timing of endoscopy in patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) remains controversial. In this study, we investigated the clinical outcomes of urgent endoscopy in patients with symptoms suggestive of UGIB compared with elective endoscopy.From January 2016 to December 2018, consecutive patients who visited the emergency department and underwent endoscopy for clinical manifestations of acute UGIB were eligible. Urgent endoscopy (within 6 hours) and elective endoscopy (after 6 hours) were defined as the time taken to perform endoscopy from presentation to the emergency department. The primary outcome was mortality rate within 30 days.A total of 572 patients were included in the analysis. Urgent endoscopy was performed in 490 patient. The 30–day mortality rate did not differ between the urgent endoscopy group and the elective endoscopy group. There was no difference regarding the recurrent bleeding rate, total amount of transfusion, and length of hospital stay in both groups. In multivariate analysis, age and the amount of transfusion were factors associated with mortality.Urgent endoscopy was not associated with lower 30–day mortality rate compared with elective endoscopy in patients with suspected of acute UGIB.