Bacteremia frequency in patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding

Introduction and Aim: Acute upper gastrointestinal system hemorrhage is common causes of mortality and morbidity. The mortality rate is between 6-8%. Mortality increases with age and comorbid diseases. In our study, it is aimed to determine the frequency of bacteremia in hospitalized variceal and non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding patients, as well as to determine the frequency of transient bacteremia following endoscopic examination and the difference between the groups. Materials and Methods: Patients who admitted to the emergency department of KTU Hospital due to upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage and performed endoscopy between February 2011 to August 2012 were included to our study. Patients were divided into 2 groups, variceal and non-variceal bleeding. Groups were compared in terms by frequency of bacteremia before and after endoscopy drugs using endoscopic therapy transfusion requirements and duration of hospitalization. Results: Randomly sampled 54 patients, %70.4 of patients were male, %29.6 of patients were female, with average age 64.1±17.8 years were included to the study. %83.3 of patients had have one or more comorbid diseases. Endoscopic treatment was not used in %44 of patients. Blood culture samples were collected from patients before and after endoscopy. Statistical difference not found between two groups for transfusion requirement and stay in hospital. There was 3 bacteremia in the variceal and 3 bacteremia detected in the non-variceal group before endoscopy. There was 1 bacteremia detected (%1.8) in variceal bleeding group and none in non variceal group after endoscopy. Conclusions: In this study, patients who admitted with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, bacteremia rate was %8.8 in non-variceal bleeding group and %15 in variceal bleeding group. Results were consistent with few studies available in the literature. Due to the small number of patients in our study, bacteremia after endoscopy couldn?t be detected in the variceal bleeding group. There is more patients included studies needed in this regard.