Selective visceral angiography in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal hemorrhage

Abstract

Visceral angiography has been proved to be a valuable addition to the diagnostic armamentarium for acute and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding. Selective visceral arterial infusion of Pitressin is helpful in the control of acute gastrointestinal bleeding. In those patients who received Pitressin, 67 per cent had control of bleeding and in nine of eighteen (50 per cent) surgery was avoided. In patients whose bleeding was controlled by Pitressin there were no deaths resulting from recurrent bleeding of the original lesion. The use of Pitressin seems especially indicated in the management of acute gastrointestinal bleeding in a patient who is a poor surgical risk because of systemic disease, abdominal wall or intraperitoneal sepsis, stress ulcer syndrome, hemorrhagic gastritis, esophagogastric varices, and colonic lesions such as diverticulosis.