An ulcer is like digging a hole in the street. If you dig deep enough, you might you might encounter a water pipe and cause a flood. Here is an ulcer in the stomach that has eaten deeply into the lining of the stomach wall and opened up an artery. With every heartbeat of this patient, precious blood is leaving the circulatory system and spurting into the stomach where it is either vomited or passed per rectum as a black stool. Obviously, a bleeding ulcer can be life threatening and these symptoms should lead to a quick trip to the nearest emergency department.
In the past, most situations like this required emergency surgery and removal of part of the stomach. Now with our newer scopes, many bleeding ulcers can be cauterized which stops the bleeding. In many cases, surgery can now be avoided. |
