Abstract
It is well known that acute gastroduodenal lesion is the most common and serious complication after thermal injury. However, little has been demonstrated what kind of lesion occur in the early stage after thermal injury. To this purpose, early and serial endoscopic examinations of the stomach and duodenum were performed in 11 burned patients admitted to Osaka University Hospital. Among 11 patients, four cases were male and seven were female. Ages ranged from nine to 83 years. Burn size varied from 23 to 70 per cent of total body surface (average burn size, 43.5 per cent of body surface). Mortality within the study population was 81.8 per cent. Endoscopic examination was performed within a week after the onset of gastrointestinal bleeding, and it was done within 48 hours in four cases. Endoscopic examinations showed hemorrhagic erosion in seven patients, duodenal ulcer in one and no remarkable change in three. Gastric ulcer was not found in the present study, It was interested that hemorrhagic erosion was localized in the body of the stomach. There was a close relationship between the severity of the lesions and that of gastrointestinal bleeding.
