Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Feb 26, 2015; 3(1): 4-10
Published online Feb 26, 2015. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v3.i1.4
Prophylactic tracheal intubation for upper GI bleeding: A meta-analysis
Ashraf A Almashhrawi, Rubayat Rahman, Samuel T Jersak, Akwi W Asombang, Alisha M Hinds, Hazem T Hammad, Douglas L Nguyen, Matthew L Bechtold
Ashraf A Almashhrawi, Rubayat Rahman, Samuel T Jersak, Akwi W Asombang, Alisha M Hinds, Hazem T Hammad, Matthew L Bechtold, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Douglas L Nguyen, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, United States
Author contributions: Almashhrawi AA, Nguyen DL and Bechtold ML were responsible for the conception and design of the study; Almashhrawi AA, Rahman R, Jersak ST and Hinds AM collected the data and organized data extraction sheets; Hammad HT, Nguyen DL and Bechtold ML statistically analyzed the data; Almashhrawi AA, Rahman R and Jersak ST drafted the manuscript with critical revision being performed by Asombang AW, Hammad HT, Nguyen DL and Bechtold ML.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest for this manuscript.
Data sharing: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Matthew L Bechtold, MD, FACP, FASGE, FACG, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, Five Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. bechtoldm@health.missouri.edu
Telephone: +1-573-8821013 Fax: +1-573-8844595
Received: October 28, 2014
Peer-review started: October 28, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 22, 2014
Accepted: January 9, 2015
Article in press: January 12, 2015
Published online: February 26, 2015
Processing time: 175 Days and 7.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) require endoscopic treatment with variable outcomes of aspiration, pneumonia, non-endoscopic interventions, and mortality. It is suggested that endotracheal intubation prior to endoscopy might reduce aspiration, pneumonia, and mortality. Few studies have evaluated this issue. We performed a meta-analysis of observational studies examining endotracheal intubation vs no intubation in UGIB patients. We found that patients intubated had higher incidence of pneumonia within 48 h. There was no significant increase in aspiration and mortality in the intubated group. This meta-analysis demonstrates the need for randomized controlled trials to assess the issue.