Reassessment of massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage on the wards of the oston City Hospital

Malignant hypertension as a cause of massive intestinal bleeding

A forty-one year old man with a three year history of malignant hypertension developed massive rectal bleeding. A mesenteric arteriogram showed vascular changes compatible with necrotizing angitis. Histologic examination of the resected right hemicolon confirmed malignant hypertension as the cause of angitis.

Progress in the treatment of acute gastroduodenal mucosal lesions (AGML)

This article presents an analysis of acute gastroduodenal mucosal lesions (AGML) based on a review of current literature and the personal experience of the authors. The pathology of AGML involes two distinct types of lesions, namely, superficial erosions confined to the acid-secreting gastric mucosa and presenting as erosive hemorrhagic gastritis, and acute ulcers that occur in the alkaline gastric mucosa and duodenum. The etiology of these two lesions is very likely different. Acut gastroduodenal ulcers, best known as stress ulcers, are probably "peptic" lesions, whereas erosive hemorrhagic gastritis appears to be due to pathologic back diffusion of hydrogen ions caused by a breakdown of the gastric mucosal barrier as a result of endogenous factors, such as gastric mucosal ischemia, and sometimes exogenous factors, such as alcohol, urea, and acetylsalicylic acid. Catecholamine hypersecretion resulting from severe stress, such as occurs in hypovolemia, sepsis, and hypercapnea, contributes to ischemia of the gastric mucosa by producing splanchnic vasoconstriction. The key to the diagnosis of AGML is early endoscopy in all cases of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Therapy for AGML should begin with a trial of medical measures directed at restoring effective perfusion of tissues and removing hydrogen ions from the stomach by gastric washing. Medical therapy is effective in 80% of patients with erosive hemorrhagic gastritis, but surgical treatment is usually required in acute gastroduodenal ulcer. When surgery is necessary for either type of lesion, vagotomy with hemigastrectomy appears to be the most effective operation. The personal experience of the authors has involved 36 patients with AGML who were treated in three periods between 1968 and 1976. The mortality rate of patients with AGML has been reduced from 50% in the first 2 years to zero in the last 2 years by the use of emergency endoscopy for diagnosis, appropriate medical therapy, properly timed and executed surgery, and, most recently, selective angiography.

Prothrombin complex concentrate: use in controlling the hemorrhagic diathesis of chronic liver disease

A prothrombin complex concentrate was used in attempts to control life-threatening hemorrhage in 4 patients with chronic liver disease. The population manifested profuse bleeding from varices and/or hemorrhagic gastritis; 3 had Laennec's cirrhosis and 1 had postnecrotic cirrhosis from childhood hepatitis. In all patients the complex was given in amounts needed to raise the prothrombin (factor II) level to approximately 100% of normal. In all 4 cases the prothrombin time and prothrombin complex factors approached normal within 1-2 hr after beginning the infusion. In all patients bleeding ceased with correction of the clotting status. One patient rebled several hours after completing the infusion. In several patients, increases in factors V and VIII were noted following infusion of the concentrate. A further unexpected finding was a spontaneous increase in factors II and IX at 3 days postinfusion. Prothrombin complex concentrate appears to be useful in controlling the hemorrhage of chronic liver disease when used alone or in combination with other modalities to correct specific hemostatic defects; however, patients may be expected to rebleed when the effect of the concentrate wears off. Its use, therefore, should probably be restricted to those patients who are to undergo corrective surgery of the bleeding point once hemostasis is achieved.