ABSTRACT
District hospitals admit each year 50-80 cases of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage per 100000 of the population, of whom more than two-thirds are aged over 60 years.
Peptic ulcers account for 50% of bleeds and about one-third of patients have recently taken NSAIDs. Eighty per cent of patients’ bleeding stops spontaneously without therapeutic intervention. Mortality rises with age but the overall death rate has been reported at 4% in the UK national audit. Causes of death are most commonly related to coexisting disease, post-operative deaths, underlying disease or exsanguination.
