Upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding is a common condition that can cause hemodynamic instability and death if left untreated. Endoscopic hemostasis is often successful; however, some patients may develop refractory bleeding. Pharmacologic management with octreotide is beneficial in patients with variceal bleeding and has been shown in some studies to be effective in refractory bleeding due to angiodysplasia. There is a paucity of literature regarding the usage of long-term octreotide in refractory bleeding secondary to a peptic ulcer. We present a case of a bleeding gastric ulcer that was refractory to endoscopic management but responsive to long-term octreotide therapy.

Intraoperative management of refractory small bowel gastrointestinal bleeding continues to present challenges to surgeons, specifically, in localizing the source of bleeding. The need for operative intervention has decreased significantly with improved percutaneous radiologic techniques for embolization with good success rates. When percutaneous treatment methods fail, the surgeon is left with a variety of suboptimal options for localization if the pathologic source is not obvious on external inspection of the small bowel. This report describes a novel method for localizing small bowel gastrointestinal bleeding in those patients who have had previous coil embolization attempts at controlling small bowel gastrointestinal bleeding.

We report the case of a 27-year-old female patient with a history of cryptogenic cirrhosis who was admitted to the hospital due to multiple episodes of hematemesis secondary to bleeding esophageal varices. The varices were persistent and refractory to endoscopic intervention, so an emergent transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) was performed by interventional radiology (IR). Months later, the patient returned to the hospital unresponsive with acute intermittent hepatic encephalopathy which required a TIPS reduction by IR. Once the TIPS reduction was performed, the patient\'s hepatic encephalopathy declined, and her symptoms improved. Here, we present a unique method of TIPS reduction utilizing a single Viabahn VBX balloon-expandable stent (W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc; Flagstaff, AZ) to constrain the existing TIPS stent.

Angiodysplasia (also known as angioectasia) is a lesion characterized by abnormal, dilated small blood vessels in the mucosa and submucosal layers of the GI tract. With the estimated low incidence of active GI bleeding from these lesions, angiodysplasia can be challenging to diagnose. The presence of aortic stenosis has increased the recognition rate of angiodysplasia, especially in the elderly. Despite the associations between aortic stenosis and angiodysplasia (Heyde\'s syndrome) revealed in several studies, the etiology of Heyde syndrome is still debatable, which has led to the proposition of several hypotheses that are reviewed in this article. This activity will help review the meaning of Heyde\'s syndrome, epidemiology, proposed pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management by surveying articles published between 1955 and 2021 on PubMed. We used search terms such as \"colonic angiodysplasia,\" \"arteriovenous malformation,\" \"Heyde syndrome,\" \"refractory gastrointestinal bleed,\" \"aortic valve stenosis,\" and \"acquired von Willebrand disease.\" Findings revealed an association between aortic stenosis and lower gastrointestinal (GI) bleed.

Testicular choriocarcinomas comprise less than 1% of all testicular tumors and are often highly vascular with early hematogenous metastasis. Choriocarcinoma syndrome (CS) is a rare entity distinguished by diffuse tumor burden and often fatal bleeding from metastatic sites. Most reported cases describe pulmonary hemorrhage secondary to initiation of chemotherapy. We present a fatal case of a young, previously healthy male with overwhelming gastrointestinal bleeding as the presenting sign of CS. Our case demonstrates that CS should be considered in the differential diagnosis for refractory anemia due to gastrointestinal hemorrhage in a young male with a testicular mass.

Nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (NVUGIH) is more prevalent than lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage and carries a high risk of mortality in the elderly, especially those with significant cardiovascular comorbidities. Traditional endoscopic methods, such as through-the-scope clips, electrocautery, and epinephrine injection, are frequently used to control these bleeds; however, they carry a 10% risk of rebleeding, and this itself carries a mortality risk of 36%. The larger over-the-scope clips (OTSC) that were initially used for the closure of fistulas and perforations are now gradually being implemented to manage NVUGIH. To our knowledge, we present the first cases to be reported in the literature where OTSC was successfully used as salvage therapy for refractory acute upper gastrointestinal bleeders who failed traditional endoscopic management and interventional radiology-guided embolization of the bleeding artery. We also provide an up-to-date literature review on the use of OTSC and its superiority to traditional endoscopic interventions in the management of complicated NVUGIH.