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Blatchford scoring system is a useful scoring system for detecting patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding who do not need endoscopic intervention
Author(s) -
Masaoka Tatsuhiro,
Suzuki Hidekazu,
Hori Shingo,
Aikawa Naoki,
Hibi Toshifumi
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of gastroenterology and hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1440-1746
pISSN - 0815-9319
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2006.04762.x
Subject(s) - medicine , emergency department , scoring system , retrospective cohort study , endoscopy , upper gastrointestinal bleeding , gi bleeding , emergency medicine , psychiatry
Background and Aim: Several scoring systems have been devised to identify patients with upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding who are at a high risk of adverse outcomes. We retrospectively evaluated the accuracy of the Blatchford scoring system for assessing the need for clinical intervention in cases of UGI bleeding admitted to the emergency department (ED). Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted on patients who underwent emergency GI endoscopy at the ED of our hospital. Those who needed blood transfusion, operative or endoscopic interventions to control the hemorrhage were classified into the ‘high risk’ group. Results: Of the 93 enrolled patients, 70 (75.3%) were classified into the high risk group. The Blatchford score was significantly higher in the high risk group than in the low risk group. When a cut‐off value of 2 was used, the sensitivity and specificity of the Blatchford scoring system were determined to be 100% and 13%, respectively. Thus, the Blatchford scoring system was deemed to be useful for distinguishing between the high risk group and the low risk group of patients with GI hemorrhage admitted to the ED. Conclusion: The Blatchford scoring system is accurate for identifying definitively low‐risk patients of GI hemorrhage, even prior to the performance of emergency UGI endoscopy at the ED.