Analysis of Clinical Rockall Score in patients with Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in the Emergency Services of a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is a gastrointestinal emergency. It is characterized by hematemesis or melena or both. Rapid identification and stabilization of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding presenting to the emergency department is essential for patient survival. This study was done to inspect the use of the Clinical Rockall score to predict the outcome in patients with Upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Methods: A cross sectional study of 272 patients who presented to the emergency department of Tribhuvan University Teaching hospital within a period of one year with hematemesis or melena or both was performed. The Clinical Rockall Score was calculated for each patient based on the points assigned for clinical variables.

Results: The most common cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding was esophageal varices 86 (31.6%), followed by ulcers 53 (19.5%). Hematemesis was the most common mode of presentation in 133 (48.9%) followed by melaena in 95 (34.9%) and both in 44 (16.2%). High clinical Rockall score of >4 was associated with outcomes like transfusion in 81% patients, rebleeding in 61.9% and mortality in 69% of patients. The predictive accuracy of clinical Rockall score for transfusion, the AUROC was 0.737 (95% CI: 0.678-0.791, P=0.001); for rebleeding, the AUROC was 0.863 (95% CI: 0.8-0.927, P= 0.001) and for mortality, the AUROC was 0.877 (95% CI: 0.81-0.944, P= 0.001).

Conclusions: Clinical Rockall Score is a simple and rapid non endoscopic risk score that can be applied at the time of presentation to the emergency department to predict mortality outcomes in patients with acute UGIB.