Abdominal Exploration for Gastro-intestinal Bleeding of Obscure Origin

The authors reviewed the records of 100 patients with gastrointestinal bleeding who had abdominal exploration performed for diagnosis. In every case thorough and often repeated medical evaluation had failed to reveal the cause of the bleeding. In 30 patients a positive diagnosis was made at exploration; in 53 patients the exploration was negative, and in the remaining 17 patients the surgical findings were indeterminate. The most frequent findings were peptic ulcer, malignant lesions of the bowel, and diffuse disease of the small bowel.