Treatment and prognosis in peptic ulcer bleeding.

Peptic ulcer bleeding is a frequent cause of admission. Despite several advances in treatment the 30-day mortality seems unchanged at a level around 11%. Use of risk scoring systems is shown to be advantageous in the primary assessment of patients presenting with symptoms of peptic ulcer bleeding. Studies performed outside Denmark have demonstrated that use of risk scoring systems facilitates identification of low-risk patients suitable for outpatient management. Nevertheless, these systems have not been implemented for routine use in Denmark. This is mainly explained by concerns about the external validity due to considerable inter-country variation in patients' characteristics. In recent years, transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) has become increasingly used for achievement of haemostasis in patients with peptic ulcer bleeding not responding to endoscopic therapy. As rebleeding is associated with poor outcome TAE could, in theory, also be beneficial as a supplementary treatment in patients with ulcer bleeding responding to endoscopic therapy. This has not been examined previously. Several studies have concluded that peptic ulcer bleeding is associated with excess long-term mortality. These findings are, however, questioned as the studies were based on life-table analysis, unmatched control groups, or did not perform adequate adjustment for comorbidity. Treatment with blood transfusion is, among patients undergoing cardiac bypass surgery, shown to increase the long-term mortality. Despite frequent use of blood transfusion in treatment of peptic ulcer bleeding a possible adverse effect of on long-term survival has not been examined in these patients.