Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Fewer ventilated patients who received pantoprazole, a widely available proton-pump inhibitor, experienced clinically important upper gastrointestinal bleeding, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A 75-year-old man presents for evaluation of profound fatigue of at least 3 months’ duration.

The PillSense System, a novel blood-sensing swallowed capsule device, safely detected blood in patients with clinically suspected upper gastrointestinal bleeding with a sensitivity of 92.9% and a specificity of 90.6%, data showed.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Metoclopramide may be effective for patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, but a scarcity of published trial data hinders its use, according to a presentation at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Video capsule endoscopy and double-balloon enteroscopy were safe and effective in the management of patients with indications other than suspected small bowel bleeding, including celiac disease and Crohn’s disease, researchers reported.

The ACG has issued revised guidelines for the management of patients with acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding, which include new recommendations for risk stratification and reversal agents for patients on anticoagulants.

The ACG has developed a clinical guideline to aid physicians in the diagnosis and management of patients with gastrointestinal subepithelial lesions, which recently was published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Data suggest that apixaban, a direct oral anticoagulant, may be preferable to other drugs in its category as it was associated with a lower risk for GI bleeding compared with its counterparts.

Compared with other direct oral anticoagulants, apixaban was associated with lower rates of gastrointestinal bleeding but similar rates of ischemic stroke and all-cause mortality among adults with atrial fibrillation, data show.