UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY FINDINGS AT GONDAR UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, NORTH-WESTERN ETHIOPIA: AN EIGHT YEAR ANALYSIS

Upper gastrointestinal symptoms are a common complaint in the clinical setting in the Northern part of Ethiopia. Until recently, patient assessment and treatment relied basically on assumptions and experience acquired from other parts of Ethiopia. Hence, this study aims to assess endoscopic findings in referred patients to Gondar University Hospital, Northwestern Ethiopia. It is a record based descriptive study undertaken by using data collected by health professionals at the endoscopy unit in the Gondar University Hospital. Patient data collected from April 30, 2005 to May 1, 2013 was investigated. Analysis was carried out using the SPSS version 16.0. A total of 1,310 patients had upper gastro intestinal endoscopic examinations. Esophago-gastro-duodenal pathology was detected in 1093 (83.4%) patients. Duodenal ulcer was the commonest endoscopic finding documented in 333(25.4%) cases. Chi-square analyses showed gastric outlet obstruction and duodenal findings significantly associated with gastro esophageal reflux disease. The study has discovered the pattern of upper gastrointestinal pathologies in patients referred to University of Gondar Hospital. Duodenal ulcer was found to be the commonest pathology leading to clinical symptoms to be followed by atrophic gastritis, gastric outlet obstruction, gastro esophageal reflux disease and gastritis in decreasing order.