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Upper and Lower Gastrointestinal Bleeding

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Surgical Management of Elderly Patients

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Abstract

More than 1% of people aged 80 years and older are hospitalized each year because of gastrointestinal bleeding, and rates of both upper and lower GI hemorrhages increase significantly with aging. Gastrointestinal bleeding in such elderly people can originate from lesions common to all age groups or from lesions associated specifically with aging. Although the approach to the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal bleeding is not specific to elderly people, elderly people differ from younger people in the same conditions for several aspects of clinical presentation and outcomes. In elderly people, morbidity and mortality from GI bleeding are determined by both the nature and the entity of bleeding and by the presence of comorbid medical conditions, including cardiovascular and pulmonary disease; furthermore, they are commonly prescribed numerous medications which may compromise mucosal integrity and predispose bleeding (aspirin, NSAID, anticoagulant, and antiplatelet medications). In this chapter, clinical presentation, etiology, risk factors, diagnostic tools, and management in upper and lower gastrointestinal bleeding are explained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. General, Emergency and Trauma Surgery Department, Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Bergamo, Italy

    Paola Fugazzola, Giulia Montori, Luca Ansaloni & Federico Coccolini

  2. General Surgery Department, San Giuseppe Hospital, Empoli, Italy

    Camilla Bing

  3. Emergency Surgery Department, Parma University Hospital, Parma, Italy

    Fausto Catena

  4. General and Emergency Surgery Department, Macerata Hospital, Macerata, Italy

    Massimo Sartelli

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  1. Paola Fugazzola
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  2. Giulia Montori
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  3. Camilla Bing
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  1. Department of General and Mininvasive Surgery, Cristo Re Hospital, Rome, Italy

    Antonio Crucitti

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Fugazzola, P. et al. (2018). Upper and Lower Gastrointestinal Bleeding. In: Crucitti, A. (eds) Surgical Management of Elderly Patients. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60861-7_31

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