CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE (CLD);

Objective: To determine the frequency of chronic liver disease in patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding(UGIB) at Nishtar Hospital, Multan. Study Design: Descriptive case series. Duration of study: Six months from August 2009 to January 2010.Setting: Department of Internal Medicine, Nishtar Hospital Multan. Methodology: A total of 88 patients with upper GI bleed were registered.Prior permission was taken from Institutional Ethical Committee to conduct this study. Informed consent was taken from each patient. Upper GIEndoscopy was done to find out the source of bleeding. For identification of each patient, personal data was collected. All the data collectedwere entered and analyzed using SPSS-10. Results: Mean age was 41.64±13.56 years with 49 (55.70%) male patients and 39 (44.30%)female patients. Majority of the patients 38(43.18%) were between 36-50 years of age. In our series frequency of chronic liver disease was56.82%. Conclusions: Chronic liver disease is the most common cause of upper GI bleeding in our setting.