Endoscopic examination of the upper part of the digestive tract in vascular surgery patients - should it be a routine procedure?

Krzysztof Ziaja; Maciej Zaniewski; Przemysław Nowakowski; Tomasz Urbanek; Marian Simka

Vol 3, No 2 (2001)

Published online: 2002-02-08

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Endoscopic examination of the upper part of the digestive tract in vascular surgery patients - should it be a routine procedure?

Krzysztof Ziaja, Maciej Zaniewski, Przemysław Nowakowski, Tomasz Urbanek, Marian Simka

Chirurgia Polska 2001;3(2):89-96.

Vol 3, No 2 (2001)

Published online: 2002-02-08

Abstract

2 groups of patients with peripheral atherosclerotic disease were analyzed. In all the patients from the group first (300 patients) before vescular reconstruction rutine endoscopic examination of the upper alimentary tract was performed. In the second group (300 patients) endoscopy was done selectively according to the ailments. Gastric or duodenal ulcerations or erosiones were recognized in 81 patients (27%) from the routine endoscopy group - in 56 cases the pathology was asymptomatic. In the group of patients without routine endoscopic examination, in 8 cases gastroduodenal bleeding due to peptic ulcerations occurred postoperatively. At autopsy other 4 patients, whose deaths were related to another pathology, were diagnosed to have active peptic ulcer. In the paper pathogenesis of the more frequent peptic ulcer disease occurrence in vascular patients was discussed - including possible risk factors. According to the authors’ experience every patient qualified for elective surgical management of occulsive arterial disease preoperatively should be examined endoscopically, and if an gastroduodenal pathology is diagnosed, the vascular procedure should be performed after these changes are cured.