Endoscopic Findings in Patients With Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Ogun State, Nigeria

Introduction Although the global incidence of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) appears to have reduced substantially in the past few decades, acute UGIB still carries significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. There are currently no published data on UGIB in Ogun State, Nigeria. This study examined the endoscopic findings in patients with UGIB in Ogun State. Methodology The study was a retrospective cross-sectional survey of patients with UGIB who had upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at three endoscopy centers in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, from January 2015 to December 2021. Patients’ data, which included age, gender, and endoscopic findings, were extracted from the endoscopy registers into a spreadsheet and analyzed statistically. Summary statistics included means ± standard deviation for continuous variables and frequencies and percentages for categorical variables. Categorical variables were compared for differences by chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test as appropriate. The statistical significance cutoff was p-value <0.05. Results A total of 171 had endoscopy for UGIB during the period under review but 168 had complete data. Out of the 168, 113 (67.3%) were males, giving a male-to-female ratio of 2:1. The mean age of the patients was 52.4 ± 18.1 years, with an age range of 7-85 years. The modal age group was ≥60 years (75; 39.9%). The most common endoscopic finding was peptic ulcer disease (77; 45.8%), followed by esophagogastric varices (27; 16.1%), erosive mucosal disease (25; 14.9 %), portal hypertensive gastropathy (15; 8.9%), suspected malignancies (11; 6.6%), hemorrhagic gastritis (7; 4.2%), gastric antral vascular ectasia (2; 1.2%), and Mallory-Weiss tear (1; 0.6%), respectively. Forty-four patients (26.2%) had no lesion that could explain UGIB. Conclusion Peptic ulcer disease was the most common cause of UGIB among our patient population, and the elderly male patients were the most affected.