The percentage of older patients suffering from AUGIB has been increasing rapidly over the last years in the Western World. Elderly patients constitute a subgroup with special characteristics, which need careful handling during their hospitalization, because it is a population with considerable co-morbidity, higher medication use and greater risk for further complications. There has been limited information on the clinical outcome of the very elderly patients with AUGIB.
A clinical article published on 7 July 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this issue. The research team led by Prof. Nikolopoulou VN, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Patras, Greece reviewed the records of 147 patients over 80 years old who hospitalized with AUGIB. They found that severity of bleeding in octogenarians is not different in comparison with younger patients, rebleeding is uncommon and the need for emergency surgical hemostasis rare. Mortality is higher than the younger population and the presence of severe comorbidity is the main adverse factor of clinical outcome.
These results show that very old patients suffering from AUGIB should be managed as younger patients, but clinicians should have in mind that their patients with severe comorbidity are at increased risk of adverse outcome.
Reference: Theocharis GJ, Arvaniti V, Assimakopoulos SF, Thomopoulos KC, Xourgias V, Mylonakou I, Nikolopoulou VN. Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in oct?genarians. Clinical outcome and factors related to mortality. World J Gastroenterol 2008;14(25): 4047-4053
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/4047.asp
Correspondence to: Stelios F Assimakopoulos, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Vironos 18, 26224, Patras, Greece. sassim@upatras.gr
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About World Journal of Gastroenterology
World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection. It provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the title China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
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Key words: Alternative Medicine; Gastroenterology
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World Journal of Gastroenterology