Can Prognostic Scores Identify Low-Risk Patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in the Emergency Department?

Limited evidence supports various prognostic scores for identifying low-risk patients with upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in the emergency department who might be suitable for outpatient management. Researchers used clinical and administrative data to retrospectively compare the performance of 12 prognostic scores among 990 adults (median age, 71) hospitalized with upper GI bleeding in 38 French hospitals.

Key findings included the following:

• The most common etiologies of bleeding were gastric or duodenal ulcers and erosions (33%) and portal hypertension (12%); cause was undetermined in 25%.

• The primary outcome of in-hospital therapeutic intervention (i.e., blood transfusion or endoscopic, surgical, or interventional radiology hemostasis…