Management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding – Is there a “weekend or night” effect?

Introduction: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) remains a common problem. Early endoscopy has been proven to shorten length of stay, increase efficiency of care, lower rates of surgery and reduce the needs for transfusion. Our aim is to evaluate the practice of urgent (4h) and early (< 24h) endoscopy during weekdays and weekend, daytime and nighttime. Patients & methods: the retrospective study reviewed 402 patients (range 22 – 93ys, male gender predominated 4:1) admitted to our department January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2012 with the primary diagnosis of UGIB. 4% of the patients were in in-hospital pa…