Vomiting blood
The first thing to do when you see vomiting with blood in yourself or another person is to call an ambulance for examination and treatment in a hospital. This condition can be caused by many reasons, some of them pose a danger to human health and life. To navigate the varieties of bloody vomiting, you need to get acquainted with the reasons for its appearance.
Appearance of vomit containing blood:
- Scarlet blood indicates that it did not have time to be exposed to gastric juice and the bleeding is fresh, or it did not occur in the stomach, but in the esophagus;
- Blood of the color of "coffee grounds" (indicates that the bleeding occurred at least 4 hours ago), may be accompanied by black feces - chalk;
- Dark color of vomit may appear after eating foods that color it (chocolate, dark berries);
- Vomiting that looks like bloody foam can be a symptom of lung damage;
- Fountain-like vomiting with blood indicates damage to the veins with varicose veins of the esophagus;
- Small streaks of blood in the vomit, more common in children, are a symptom of a hiatal hernia.
For diagnostics, the frequency of occurrence of vomiting, the amount of secretion, dependence on food intake, and accompanying symptoms are important. Only a doctor, for whom all the details of this symptom are important, can assess the danger of the position of a patient with bloody vomiting.
Content:
- Causes of bloody vomiting
- What to do if you vomit blood?
- Bloody vomiting treatment
Causes of bloody vomiting
There are not so few reasons for blood entering the vomit, and almost all of them are dangerous to humans.
In addition to such not too dangerous reasons, such as swallowing blood after tooth extraction or during nosebleeds, bloody vomiting occurs for the following reasons:
- Ulcerative lesions of the stomach and intestines. Such vomiting is preceded by a very severe attack of nausea.
- Acute gastritis. Blood inclusions are usually insignificant, and can be triggered by alcohol intake.
- Varicose veins of the walls of the stomach, the most dangerous is the dark color released along with vomiting of blood;
- Side effects of drugs that have a destructive effect on the gastric mucosa (NSAIDs, steroid hormones);
- Stomach cancer. Vomiting is exhausting, does not stop for a long time, the released mass has a putrid odor.
- Liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis. A complication of these diseases is varicose veins of the esophagus, when tense vessels with a thinned wall are subject to any mechanical stress, often injured by rough food.
- Liver damage. With this injury, bloody vomiting contains an admixture of bile, this condition is extremely life-threatening, and can be fatal.
- Perforated ulcer. This condition is often provoked by the intake of a large dose of alcohol, accompanied by an abundant quota of scarlet color, it is extremely life-threatening.
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Mallory-Weiss syndrome. Severe cough, physical activity, prolonged vomiting (for example, in case of poisoning) provoke an increase in pressure in the stomach, the formation of bleeding cracks. They cause minor bleeding and vomiting with blood clots.
In addition, vomiting blood can be triggered by traumatic brain injury, which caused profuse nosebleeds. In pregnant women suffering from late toxicosis of pregnancy, vomiting of blood occasionally appears. This is a sign of pre-eclamsia, a condition that is extremely dangerous for the health of the mother and child. Concomitant symptoms are swelling of the arms and legs, nausea, high blood pressure, weakness. Pathology requires immediate hospitalization.
What to do if you vomit blood?
While awaiting medical attention, you can take simple measures to alleviate the patient's condition:
- Carry out gastric lavage with plenty of water;
- Often drink saline or still mineral water in small sips to prevent dehydration and restore mineral balance;
- To suppress vomiting, use Cerucal, Dopamine in accordance with the instructions. It is not recommended to stop vomiting in case of poisoning.
- Observe the mode of abstinence from food, put the patient to bed if possible.
You should not carry out any measures if you suspect a perforated ulcer, serious injury to the brain and liver. In this case, the main task is to get the person to the hospital as soon as possible.
Bloody vomiting treatment
For a complete diagnosis of the causes of vomiting with blood, the doctor will prescribe a laboratory study of vomit, a biochemical blood test, an X-ray examination of the problem organ, if necessary, ultrasound and CT.
Vomiting is not an independent disease, it is one of the symptoms of some pathology. Therefore, treatment is aimed at eliminating the symptoms and the cause of the disease that caused vomiting of blood.
Author of the article: Alekseeva Maria Yurievna | Therapist
Education: From 2010 to 2016 Practitioner of the therapeutic hospital of the central medical-sanitary unit No. 21, city of elektrostal. Since 2016 she has been working in the diagnostic center No. 3.
