Gastric ulcers with upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2.

ABSTRACT

A new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was identified earlier this year and spread rapidly globally. The clinical manifestations that it produces have gradually become known and the typical clinical picture is respiratory. Although gastrointestinal symptoms have been described in several communications, information on endoscopic findings in these patients is practically zero. We describe two cases of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with COVID-19. In both cases, the presence of gastric ulcers was identified in an unusual location, the gastric fundus. After ruling out malignancy, our suspicion was an ischemic etiology that is consistent with terminal gastric vascularization at the gastric fundus level and increased thrombotic phenomena in patients with COVID-19.