Non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is a common problem in everyday clinical practice. While treating patients affected by UGIB, the estimation of the risk of complications is very important. The Rockall Score is one of the methods used in clinical practice that allows doing that. The aim of this paper is to assess the usefulness of the aforementioned scoring system while treating patients with UGIB.
Material and methods: The analysis included, 651 patients with nonvariceal UGIB. The average age of the group was 62.86+16.96 years. Each patient was subjected to the retrospective analysis according to the Rockall Scale's criteria. Then the entire group was divided into the complication risk groups according to the obtained amount of points (low<3, moderate 3 to 8, high>8). After dividing into groups the effort has been taken to find a relationship between Rockall Score points and the occurrences of individual complications.
Results: Mortality among the respondents amounted to 11.36%. The hospitalization of 97.70% patients with <3 points on the scale progressed without complications (p<0.001; X2=22.90). In the moderate risk group the highest frequency of re-bleeding and need for surgery were observed. Whereas among patients with >8 points the mortality of 78.95% was noted.
Conclusions: Rockall Score is a simple and useful method for assessing prognosis for patients with the non-variceal UGIB. The highest scores are obtained by the patients with a great risk of demise. Rockall Score may be used for classifying patients to appropriate risk groups.