Authors: Hassan K Dakik Alyson A McGhan ShihTing Chiu Chetan B Patel Carmelo A Milano Joseph G Rogers SheinChung Chow Daniel M Wild
Publish Date: 2016/01/25
Volume: 61, Issue: 6, Pages: 1603-1610
Abstract
Left ventricular assist devices LVADs are increasingly common in patients with advanced heart failure GI bleeding GIB occurs in 20–30 of these patients and can arise anywhere in the GI tract Given the high rates of GIB in this population our aim was to determine the diagnostic yield of repeated endoscopic evaluation in these patientsOf the 257 patients with LVADs placed 78 30 underwent at least one endoscopy for GIB A source was identified in 36 of cases most commonly angioectasias 536 Treatment was performed in 679 of patients and hemostasis was achieved in all 641 of the cohort underwent a second endoscopy for GIB 429 of these exams revealed a bleeding source Endoscopic treatment was employed in 762 385 of the cohort underwent a third endoscopic exam for bleeding and a source was identified in 533 with angioectasias remaining most common 563 By Fisher’s exact and Chisquare testing only the presence of a bleeding source p = 00034 and use of hemostatic therapy p = 00127 on the index examination were significantly associated with rebleedingThis work represents original research conducted within Duke University Health System research policies Neither myself nor any of the authors listed above have any pertinent financial or professional conflicts of interest related to this study to disclose
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