ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the clinical outcomes of cirrhotic patients presented with variceal and non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding.

Study Design: Comparative/Observational

Place & Duration of Study: This study was conducted in the Department of Gastroenterology/Medicine at Social Security Teaching Hospital, Lahore from 01-06-2019 to 31-12-2019.

Methodology: One hundred and thirty cirrhotic patients of both genders with ages 20 to 70 years presented with upper gastrointestinal bleeding were included. They were divided in two groups. Group I consist of 65 patients with acute variceal bleeding and group II contains 65 patients with non-variceal bleeding were examined. Clinical outcomes such as mortality, length of hospital stay, intensive care admission and re-bleeding were examined and compared the findings between both groups.

Results: There were 42 (64.62%) male patients and 23 (35.38%) female patients in group I and in group II, 45 (69.23%) were male and 20 (30.77%) were females. Mean age of patients in variceal group was 52.38±10.43 years and in non-variceal group mean age were 57.68±10.36 years. Oesophageal varices were the most common etiology in acute variceal bleeding group 41 (63.07%) and in non-variceal bleeding group it was found in 22 (33.84%) patients. No significant difference found in term of mortality between both groups I and II 9 (13.85%) vs 7 (10.77%). No significant difference was found in length of hospital stay 6.45±1.26 vs 7.02±1.37 days. Rebleeding was significantly high in patients with non-variceal bleeding 20 (30.77%) than variceal bleeding 8 (12.31%) with p-value <0.05.

Conclusion: In variceal bleeding patients, mortality rate and 30 days rebleeding rate was high as compared to non-variceal bleeding patients. However, no significant difference found regarding length of hospital stay between acute variceal bleeding patients and non-variceal bleeding patients.

Keywords: Cirrhosis, Upper gastrointestinal bleeding, Variceal, Non-variceal, Hospital stay, Mortality, Rebleeding