Prognosis for Off-Hour Patients of Hemorrhagic Gastroduodenal Ulcers Treated by Endoscopic Hemostasis Is Equivalent to That of Office-Hour Patients in Japan: 1539

Introduction: Efficacy of emergency endoscopic hemostasis on peptic ulcer bleeding is well established. One of the problems in the emergency endoscopy is timing in hospital visit of outpatients. This study aimed i) to compare the characteristics and outcome between office-hour outpatients and off-hour outpatients, and ii) to reveal risk factors for re-bleeding. Methods: This study included 145 outpatients who received emergency endoscopic hemostasis in Karatsu Red Cross Hospital from January, 2008 to April, 2015. The patients were divided into two groups with hospital visiting time: group A of 70 patients; outpatients who visited the hospital during officehour (8:30 to 17:00 on weekdays), and group B of 75 patients; outpatients who visited the hospital during off-hour (17:00 to 8:30 on weekdays or holidays). Characteristics and outcomes were compared between the two groups. In addition, risk factors for re-bleeding were evaluated. Results: Background characteristics of the patients including age, gender, underlying disease, medication, chief complaint, location of ulcer, and Forrest classification were not different between groups A and B. Treatment outcomes of endoscopic hemostasis including primary hemostasis, re-bleeding, endoscopy related complications, and number of deaths within 30 days were not different between the two groups. Anti-platelet agent was a only risk factor for re-bleeding (p = 0.024). Conclusion: Treatment outcomes did not depend on the visiting time to the hospital, suggesting a small number of medical staffs during overtime of the hospital appropriately treated the patients with bleeding ulcers in Japan. In addition, the results suggested that more careful care was required in the patients taking anti-platelet agent.