Epidemiology and outcome of patients hospitalized with acute lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVES: Population-based data on the epidemiology and outcome of patients hospitalized with acute lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage (ALGIH) are lacking. This survey of the incidence, etiology, therapy, and long-term outcome of patients with ALGIH was conducted in a defined population.

METHODS: In a large health maintenance organization, discharge data and colonoscopy records were used to identify adults hospitalized with ALGIH from 1990 to 1993. Data were collected by record review and telephone calls.

RESULTS: Two hundred nineteen patients had 235 hospitalizations, yielding an estimated annual incidence rate of 20.5 patients/100,000 (24.2 in males versus 17.2 in females, p < .001). The rate increased > 200-fold from the third to the ninth decades of life. Diagnoses were: colonic diverticulosis, 91 (41.6%); colorectal malignancy, 20 (9.1%); ischemic colitis, 19 (8.7%); miscellaneous, 63 (28.8%); and unknown, 26 (11.9%). Eight (3.6%) patients died in the hospital (5 of 206 (2.4%) with hemorrhage before admission versus 3 of 13 (23.1%) with hemorrhage after admission, p < .001). Follow-up of 210 of 211 (99.5%) survivors was 34.0 +/- 1.1 months. In the 83 diverticulosis patients without definitive therapy, the hemorrhage recurrence rate (Kaplan-Meier method) was 9% at 1 year, 10% at 2 years, 19% at 3 years, and 25% at 4 years. In the 89 diverticulosis patients who survived hospitalization, all-cause mortality rates (none from hemorrhage) were 11% at 1 year, 15% at 2 years, 18% at 3 years, and 20% at 4 years.

CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalization with ALGIH is related to age and male gender. After hemorrhage from colonic diverticulosis, the leading cause, rates of ALGIH recurrence and unrelated death are similar during the next 4 years.