Introduction: Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding is common and anaemia at discharge also occurs frequently. Follow-up studies of patients after discharge are limited. Furthermore, guidelines for follow-up and treatment of post-discharge anaemia have not been published.
Material and methods: We performed a local, retrospective evaluation of patients admitted for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
Results: The retrospective evaluation found that more than 80% of the patients admitted for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding were discharged with apparent anaemia, and oral iron supplementation was recommended for 16% of the discharged anaemic patients. Our study revealed no standardised follow-up protocols for anaemic patients.
Conclusion: The follow-up practice for patients with anaemia was inconsistent. Based on our research, well-designed studies are needed to determine the most effective post-discharge treatment for patients who are still anaemic at discharge after endoscopic treatment of acute non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
Funding: not relevant.
Trial registration: not relevant.