RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Diagnosis and Management of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Children JF The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO J Am Board Fam Med FD American Board of Family Medicine SP 134 OP 145 DO 10.3122/jabfm.2015.01.140153 VO 28 IS 1 A1 Susan Owensby A1 Kellee Taylor A1 Thad Wilkins YR 2015 UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/28/1/134.abstract AB Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is an uncommon but potentially serious, life-threatening condition in children. Rapid assessment, stabilization, and resuscitation should precede all diagnostic modalities in unstable children. The diagnostic approach includes history, examination, laboratory evaluation, endoscopic procedures, and imaging studies. The clinician needs to determine carefully whether any blood or possible blood reported by a child or adult represents true upper gastrointestinal bleeding because most children with true upper gastrointestinal bleeding require admission to a pediatric intensive care unit. After the diagnosis is established, the physician should start a proton pump inhibitor or histamine 2 receptor antagonist in children with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Consideration should also be given to the initiation of vasoactive drugs in all children in whom variceal bleeding is suspected. An endoscopy should be performed once the child is hemodynamically stable.