Before understanding the effects of bleeding ulcer, you should know what an ulcer is. An ulcer can be defined as a lesion or extra growth on the skin and it can develop on any part of your body. If not given treatment on time, an ulcer can enlarge in size leading to life threatening consequences due to internal bleeding. In case if the ulcerous lesions are found in gastrointestinal tract it can affect the neighboring blood vessels once it starts bleeding.
Bleeding of ulcer can occur mildly or it may erupt suddenly with intense bleeding. It would cause intense pain, decreased blood pressure and nausea or vomiting. Mild forms of bleeding ulcer may cause fatigue and anemic conditions on the person. It will certainly cause pain on the area of intestine and stomach apart from indigestion problem.
Ulcer can sometimes create a hole on the intestine damaging internal organs. Any perforation (hole) on the intestine can have serious problems of filling the toxic materials into the abdomen which in turn can block the functions of intestine causing gastrointestinal obstruction. The person may not be able to pass stool and may begin to vomit blood.
Bleeding of ulcer directly increases if the person smokes or drinks alcohol. The condition may worsen even if he takes lots of anti-inflammatory medications like aspirin or ibuprofen. Treatment of ulcers should begin in initial stages to prevent bleeding ulcer. An ulcer may start bleeding only if left untreated or left undiagnosed.
Symptoms :
Blood is discharged from the ulcer which flows into the digestive tract. Some of the signs of bleeding ulcer are vomiting blood (may look like coffee granules), bloody stool (with foul smelling black color), nose bleed, extreme tiredness, loss of weight, nausea and dizziness. It causes intense sharp pain on the stomach with difficulty in standing or walking which is due to loss of blood. The pain may spread towards your back slowly. In rare cases, it can also affect the internal organs causing serious damage warranting immediate surgery. It can cause coronary heart disease or renal failure for diabetic patients, since heart attack can be triggered by the anemic conditions of GI bleeding.
A slow bleeding ulcer is potentially dangerous since it may become fatal if treatment is not given on time.
Causes :