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Abstract Background Dyspepsia refers to a heterogeneous group of symptoms (pain or discomfort) originating from the upper abdomen and may include epigastric pain, postprandial fullness, early satiation, anorexia, belching, nausea, vomiting, upper abdominal bloating, and heartburn and regurgitation. It is very common, and may be associated with serious morbidity and occasionally mortality. It may also adversely affect the socioeconomic status of the sufferer. This study examined patients with dyspepsia and determined their common endoscopic diagnoses, risk factors and comorbidities. Methods This was a hospital-based Retrospective study carried out at the gastroenterology and hepatology unit of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria. Case notes and endoscopic records of patients who had endoscopy for dyspepsia between October 2018 and October 2020 were reviewed and information relating to demographics, dyspeptic symptoms, risk factors, comorbidities and endoscopic diagnoses were extracted. Results A total of 278 patients were studied with age range between 17 to 98 years. The mean age (SD) of the patients was 48.4 (15.6) years. There were more females than males 148 (53.2%) vs 130 (46.8%). The commonest symptom and associated risk factor in the subjects were epigastric pain 207(74.5%) and Helicobacter pylori infection 113 (40.6%) respectively. Other identified risk factors were use of NSAIDs 50 (18%), Alcohol 37 (13.3%) and herbal remedies 28 (10.1%). The commonest endoscopic diagnosis was gastritis 94 (33.8%) followed by normal findings 42 (15.1%) and GERD 37 (13.3%). Conclusions The commonest endoscopic finding in dyspepsia from this study was gastritis followed by normal findings. Thus, non-ulcer dyspepsias are the commonest cause of dyspepsia in the environment studied.
Ajayi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.