Prevalence of gastrointestinal bleeding and frequency of selected predictors of mortality on the medical emergency ward at Mulago hospital

BACKGROUND: There was no data on the prevalence of Gastrointestinal bleeding (GI) among patients admitted on the emergency ward at Mulago hospital. This was partly because the medical records were not adequately completed as designed. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of gastrointestinal bleeding and the frequency of selected predictors of mortality on the emergency ward. METHODS: This was a chart review incorporating quality improvement methods in the process of data collection. The health care team was educated on documentation of gastrointestinal bleeding while being assessed weekly for knowledge and practice of completion of the Casualty Assessment form (CAF) from which a documented diagnosis of GI bleeding and selected predictors of mortality were looked for. RESULTS: Of the 1881 CAF assessed, 278 had a documented diagnosis of GI bleeding, resulting in a prevalence of 6.8%. Of the patients with GI bleeding, 14.1% had age greater than 60 years, 24.0% had a systolic blood pressure less than 100mmHg and 44.5% had a heart rate greater than 100 beats per minute. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of GI bleeding on the medical emergency ward of Mulago hospital is high. This calls for strategies for resuscitative management of this life-threatening medical emergency. Among the selected predictors of mortality, tachycardia was most frequent followed by hypotension. These should always be assessed in a patient with GI bleeding and resuscitative measures with blood transfusion and intravenous fluids undertaken to correct them.