Ineffectiveness of routine abdominal radiography in patients with gastrointestinal hemorrhage admitted to an intensive care unit.

Goals: To determine the utility of plain abdominal radiography in the initial evaluation of acute gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhage in a medical intensive care unit.

Background: Plain abdominal radiographs are frequently used in the routine evaluation of patients with GI bleeding. The utility of these studies in the intensive care unit setting is unclear.

Study: The study was a retrospective chart review of 71 adult subjects admitted to a medical intensive care unit with the diagnosis of GI bleeding. Subjects were excluded if they presented with peritoneal signs, received an abdominal CT scan in the 24 hours prior to admission, or were chronically treated with immunosuppressive medication. Subjects were divided into two cohorts based on whether or not they underwent plain abdominal radiography during the first hospital day. The primary study endpoints were hospital mortality, intensive care unit length of stay, and whether or not radiographic findings altered clinical management.

Results: Of the 71 patients admitted with a diagnosis of GI bleeding (mean age 65.8 +/- 14.5 years, 73.2% male), 56 (79%) had a plain abdominal radiograph performed. Subjects who had a plain film did not differ significantly from those who did not in age, gender, degree of anemia, degree of coagulopathy, or in severity of illness as measured by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) score. There was no statistically significant difference in hospital mortality or intensive care unit length of stay between patients who received plain films and those who did not. In no subject (0%; 95% confidence interval, 0%-5.4%) did abdominal radiography reveal an abnormality that altered clinical management.

Conclusions: Based on our observations, plain films of the abdomen do not appear to alter clinical outcomes or management decisions for patients with GI bleeding and normal abdominal examinations who are admitted to the intensive care unit.