Upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage in the inpatient hospital setting: a different beast?

A premise exists in current gastroenterologic wisdom that the time of onset of hemorrhage from the upper gastrointestinal tract (out of hospital vs. in hospital) has a profound influence on course and outcome. Nosocomial hemorrhage from the upper gastrointestinal tract is an important modern-day complication of hospitalization that is associated with a high rate of mortality. Although our ability to prevent this complication, known to be related to length of hospital stay and severity of underlying illness, suffers deficiencies, our facility to diagnose it accurately and in many instances to treat it with the use of endoscopy is well established (1-3).

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