The present study was designed to evaluate the usefulness and safety of bipolar
hemostatic forceps, known as a less invasive and highly safe means of thermal coagulation used for hemostasis in cases of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal
bleeding. This technique of bipolar
forceps is simple, safe and unlikely to induce complications, and is therefore promising as a new technique of
endoscopic hemostasis. The study involved 39 cases where hemostasis was attempted with bipolar
forceps to deal with non-variceal upper gastrointestinal
bleeding, including 28 cases of
gastric ulcer, six cases of
duodenal ulcer, three cases of
bleeding after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), one case of
Mallory-Weiss syndrome and one case of postoperative
bleeding from the anastomosed area. There were 34 males and five females, with a mean age of 63.6 years. Bipolar
forceps were the first-line means of hemostasis in cases of oozing
bleeding (venous
bleeding), pulsatile or spurting
bleeding (arterial
bleeding) and exposed vessels without active
bleeding. The primary hemostasis success rate was 92.3%, and the re-
bleeding rate was 0%. In cases where the
bleeding site was located along the tangential line or in cases where large respiration-caused motions hampered identification of the
bleeding site, hemostasis by means of coagulation was easily effected by application of electricity while the
forceps were kept open and compressed the
bleeding area. In addition, there were no complications. This technique of bipolar
forceps is simple, safe and unlikely to induce complications, and is therefore promising as a new technique of
endoscopic hemostasis.