Etiology of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in the Children Admitted to Besat Hospital in Sanandaj

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is defined as bleeding occuring from a site proximal to the ligament of Trietz, which can present as hematemesis, melena, and hematochezia. Epidemiological studies on pediatric upper gastrointestinal bleeding were limited and its accurate incidence is not clear. This study deals with epidemiological investigation of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in hospitalized children.

This was a cross-sectional-descriptive retrospective study. Medical records of the children under 14 years of age who had been hospitalized in Besat Hospital in Sanandaj for upper gastrointestinal bleeding over the past seven years (2011-2017) were reviewed. Demographic data and endoscopic results obtained from the medical records were recorded in the questionnaires. Using SPSS 20 software, statistical analysis was performed.

Our study included 121 medical records. 64.5% of the patients were male. The mean age of the children was 5.66 years and the duration of hospitalization was 3.13 days. Among the patients, 77% were urban dwellers, 95% presented with hematemesis. 8.3% were treated with mechanical ventilation, and 5.8% had coagulation disorders. Endoscopic results showed that 45.5% of the children had prolapse gastropathy and 15.7% had Mallory Weiss syndrome.

According to our results, the most common manifestation of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in children was hematemesis and the most common cause of it was prolapse gastropathy.