Introduction:

upper gastrointestinal bleeding constitutes a frequent clinical and surgical problem, which causes morbidity and mortality in all age groups.

Objective:

to determine prognostic factors for in-hospital mortality in patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Methods:

an analytical, observational study of cases and controls was carried out in patients with upper digestive bleeding who were treated in the General Surgery service at “Arnaldo Milián Castro” Clinical and Surgical University Hospital during 2018. The study population consisted of 424 patients.

Results:

male gender (OR = 2.011), bleeding secondary to portal hypertension (OR = 7.174), presence of major disease (OR = 13.892), melena and hematemesis as a form of presentation (OR = 4.008), and Forrest ≤ IIa (OR = 40.385) were identified as the risk factors in the occurrence of mortality. The area under the curve for hematocrit, heart and respiratory rates was 0.897, 0.877 and 0.873, respectively, for excellent reliability. The mean survival was considerably lower for the categories of variables identified as risk factors associated with mortality.

Conclusions:

bleeding secondary to portal hypertension, presence of major disease, hematemesis with melena as a form of presentation, Forrest ≤ IIa, hematocrit, heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure and creatinine were identified among the prognostic factors associated with mortality.