Retrospective analysis of surgery and trans-arterial embolization for major non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding

Background With proton pump inhibitors and current sophisticated endoscopic techniques, the number of patients requiring surgical intervention for upper gastrointestinal bleeding has decreased considerably while trans‐arterial embolization is being used more often. There are few direct comparisons between the effectiveness of surgery and embolization. Methods A retrospective study of patients from two Australian teaching hospitals who had surgery or trans‐arterial embolization (n = 103) for severe upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage between 2004 and 2012 was carried out. Patient demographics, co‐morbidities, disease pathology, length of stay, complications, and overall clinical outcome and mortality were compared. Results There were 65 men and 38 women. The median age was 70 (range 36–95) years. Patients requiring emergency surgical intervention (n = 79) or trans‐arterial embolization (n = 24) were compared. The rate of re‐bleeding after embolization (42%) was significantly higher compared with the surgery group (19%) (P = 0.02). The requirement for further intervention (either surgery or embolization) was also higher in the embolization group (33%) compared with the surgery group (13%) (P = 0.03). There was no statistical difference in mortality between the embolization group (5/24, 20.8%) and the surgical group (13/79, 16.5%) (P = 0.75). Conclusion Emergency surgery and embolization are required in 2.6% of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Both techniques have high mortalities reflecting the age, co‐morbidities and severity of bleeding in this patient group.