Haematemesis color depending on the length of contact between the blood with gastric acid and the size of the bleeding, which can be colored like coffee or reddish and lumpy.
Haematemesis usually occurs when there is bleeding in the area proximal jejunun and melena may occur alone or together with haematemesis. At least 50-100 ml of bleeding, melena circumstances are found. The amount of blood that came out during haematemesis or melena difficult to use as a benchmark to estimate the size of the upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding. Haematemesis and melena is a state of emergency and need immediate treatment in hospital.
The cause of upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding :
- Abnormalities of the esophagus: varicose veins esophagitis, malignancy.
- Abnormalities of gastric and duodenal: gastric and duodenal ulcers, and other malignancies.
- Blood diseases: leukemia, DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation), thrombocytopenia purpura and others.
- Other systemic disease: uremic, and others.
- The use of drugs that ulserogenic: class salicylate, corticosteroid, alcohol, and others.
It is important to determine the cause and where sourced upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding, due to differences in efforts to control any kind of upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding.