Acute non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients over 75-year-old

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (ANVUGIB) in patients over 75-year-old. Methods Clinical data about 57 patients with ANVUGIB treated in our department from January 2014 to December 2015 were collected. Twenty-two aged patients (≥75 years) were in observation group, and 35 patients (＜ 75 years) were in control group. The causes of disease, clinical characteristics, co-morbidities, hospitalization period and prognosis of two groups were analyzed retrospectively. Results There were 16 males and 6 females in observation group with the mean age of (84.40±4.83) years, and 23 males and 12 females in control group with the mean age of (42.63±15.20) years. The ratio of hemorrhage＞ 3 times in observation group was more than control group with significant difference (13/22, 59.1% vs 6/35, 17.1%, P=0.001). The incidence of bleeding caused by digestive malignant tumor was significantly higher in observation group than control group (6/22, 27.3% vs 1/35, 2.9%, P=0.020). In addition, the re-bleeding ratio in observation group was much higher than control group (10/22, 45.5% vs 1/35, 2.9%, P=0.000 3), and the average hospitalization period of observation group was significantly longer than control group (15.73±6.34) d vs (6.95±3.28) d, P=0.000 3. The mortality of observation group was higher than control group (4/22, 18.2% vs 0/35, P=0.037). Conclusion ANVUGIB in patients older than 75 years usually accompanies with many kinds of other system diseases, more hemorrhage times, longer hospital stay, higher incidence of re-bleeding and higher risk of death, which needs to be paid more attention by clinicians.