Gastrointestinal telangiectasias. A source of bleeding in patients receiving hemodialysis.

Abstract

Endoscopy was used over a five-year period to determine the cause of acute or chronic gastrointestinal (GI) tract bleeding in 46 patients receiving long-term hemodialysis. Nine (19%) of the patients were found to be bleeding from telangiectasias. We observed the occurrence of such lesions in the stomach, the small bowel, and the colon. Endoscopic cauterization of the lesions in three patients and jejunal resection in another stopped previously recurrent GI tract bleeding.