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During the past 3 decades, advances have been made in medical and endoscopic therapy for upper gastrointestinal bleeding as well as in reducing the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection. How have these trends affected the incidence and outcomes of upper GI bleeding?
To find out, investigators prospectively collected data at a single Italian hospital on patients who presented with acute upper GI bleeding. Outcomes were then compared between patients from two different time periods (532 patients treated from 1983–1985 and 513 patients treated from 2002–2004).
The overall annual incidence of upper GI bleeding per 100,000 people decreased from 112.5 in the earlier era to 89.6 in the later era (age-adjusted difference, 36%). Patients who exp…