Korean J Gastrointest Endosc.  2006 Jun;32(6):374-380.

Clinical Features of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients with Chronic Renal Failure

• Kim HK
• Kim YS
• Cho YS
• Ji JS
• Kim SS
• Kim YO
• Yun SA
• Chae HS
• Choi KY
• Chung IS

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) is a common complication with a high mortality. However, the cause or mechanism of this condition is unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the clinical features of GIB in patients with CRF.
METHODS
The clinical features of 35 patients with CRF who were admitted to the Uijeongbu St. Mary's Hospital for GIB from January 1998 to August 2003 were examined retrospectively.
RESULTS
Thirty-five out of 803 patients had CRF (4.4%). The mean age of those with CRF was 62+/-11 years and 16 patients were male. The treatment for CRF was hemodialysis in 22 (62.9%), pre-dialysis in 10 (28.6%) and peritoneal dialysis in 3 (8.6%). The cause of GIB in CRF patients was an ulcer (45.7%), vascular disease (37.1%), hemorrhagic gastritis (8.6%), and Mallory-Weiss laceration (2.9%), etc. Rebleeding after the first treatment occurred in 5 patients (14.3%). Three of these patients (60%) had vascular disease. Surgical treatment for rebleeding was performed in 3 patients (60%) and the mortality rate in rebleeding patients was 60%.
CONCLUSIONS
The most common cause of GIB in CRF patients is an ulcer followed by vascular disease. Vascular disease in cases with rebleeding is high with a high mortality rate.

Keyword

Chronic renal failure; Gastrointestinal bleeding; Vascular disease

MeSH Terms

Gastritis
Hemorrhage*
Humans
Kidney Failure, Chronic*
Male
Mallory-Weiss Syndrome
Mortality
Peritoneal Dialysis
Renal Dialysis
Retrospective Studies
Ulcer
Vascular Diseases