Role of endoscopy in upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with malignancy.

A retrospective review of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in 55 patients with malignant disease is presented here. Major causative factors seem to be superficial gastritis and gastric erosions. With aggressive endoscopy, a diagnostic accuracy of 90 percent has been achieved. However, having the exact diagnosis too often has little significance on the final outcome of these critically ill patients, unless therapy directed against bleeding can provide time for effective antineoplastic treatment. With the better understanding of the pathology of the superficial gastric erosions, a better program of management can be evolved.