Abstract
The incidence of gastrointestinal bleeding was studied in 248 patients with carbon monoxide poisoning. Gastro-intestinal bleeding was found in 21 cases (8.5%). In severe cases whose condition did not improved the incidence of gastrointestinal bleeding was in the high frequency of 24.5% (12 of 49 cases). In 7 out of 21 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding, it occured within 24 hours after poisoning, and within one week 19 cases had complicated with bleeding. In this bleeding group, the arterial pO2 was lower than that of non-bleeding group. In six cases to which the endoscopic examination was performed, acute gastric ulcer was found in one case, hemorrhagic gastritis in three, multiple erosion in the stomach in one and duodenal ulcer with hemorrhagic gastritis in one. Gastric leisons were mainly located in corpus. These results suggested that hypoxia in the gastric mucosa was one of the important factors on the occurrence of acute gastric lesions.
