Background: Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is one of the potential causes of increased morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients, but data on characteristics of GIB in immunocompromised children are sparse.
Objectives: This study aimed to identify the etiology, endoscopic, and histologic findings of GIB in immunocompromised children.
Design: This was a retrospective descriptive study.
Patients: We identified 33 patients (aged<20 years) and 45 GIB episodes related to GIB between January 2007 and April 2015 from a tertiary care and teaching hospital.
Results: The mean age at endoscopy was 10.7±4.6 years. Most common indications for endoscopy were melena in upper GIB and hematochezia in lower GIB. The median delay of duration between GIB presentation to endoscopy was 3 days. All except one child had at least one endoscopic abnormality. The most common cause of upper GIB was cytomegalovirus (CMV)-related gastrointestinal disease (35%), followed by esophageal varices (26%), and the most common cause of lower GIB was CMV-related gastrointestinal disease (55%). Fourteen percent of patients died during upper GIB episodes and 15% died during lower GIB episodes.
Conclusion: Among immunocompromised individuals aged younger than 20 years presenting with GIB, CMV-related gastrointestinal disease is the most prevalent in our study population. However, the etiology of immunocompromised state needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating these children presenting with GIB.