The role of duodenal erosions in the occurrence of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage.

It is well known that gastric erosions and the so called erosive gastritis, cause about 20-30% of massive upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage. Our endoscopic material was examined in order to answer the following questions: at what ratio duodenal erosions induced massive bleeding, what their emergence can be attributed to, what connection may be found between duodenal ulcers and duodenal erosions and what is the rate of recovery of such patients. We found that: 1) duodenal erosions may occur together with gastric erosions, therefore they can jointly induce massive bleeding; 2) duodenal erosions may be associated with duodenal ulcer but haemorrhage originates from the erosion and the ulcer itself does not bleed; 3) duodenal erosion in itself might induce bleeding, 4) the intensity of bleeding, if there is no haemorrhage from other places, is not so severe, as the one originating from gastric erosions, and with the application of conservative treatment it usually stops within a short period of time; 5) the inducing factor is generally massive alcohol consumption; drug intake is rare as a cause for duodenal erosions. The early and exact diagnosis of duodenal erosions is all the more important in that it might safeguard the patient from unnecessary operations.