Endoscopic management of procedure-related bleeding

Bleeding is a common adverse event following invasive endoscopic procedures within the gastrointestinal tract. In a recent lexicon of adverse events following endoscopic procedures, severity of bleeding was defined as mild, moderate, and severe. These definitions are based on need for hospitalization, transfusion, and subsequent interventions. Therapy for procedure-related bleeding includes hemodynamic stabilization, transfusion of blood products, reversal of coagulopathy (if present), and endoscopic, radiologic, and/or surgical interventions. In this article, the approach to procedurally induced bleeding will be reviewed, with an emphasis on endoscopic intervention.