Objective The risk of death in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) significantly increases if they develop concomitant gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB). This study aims to investigate the clinical characteristics of MHD patients with concomitant GIB, identify risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality among them, and provide a basis for the early clinical identification and optimized clinical management of this specific patient population.

Methods The clinical data of MHD patients with GIB admitted to West China Hospital, Sichuan University between July 2019 and May 2024 were collected and a retrospective analysis was conducted accordingly. The patients were divided into a death group and a survival group based on their discharge status. Clinical characteristics, laboratory test results, endoscopic findings, etc., of the two groups were collected. Oversampling was used to reduce the bias caused by data imbalance between the two groups, and stepwise logistic regression and other methods were used for analysis.

Results A total of 212 patients were included, with 40 in the death group and 172 in the survival group. According to the findings of logistic regression, the following were identified as independent risk factors for mortality among the patients: activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) (odds ratio OR = 1.014; 95% CI, 1.002-1.027; P = 0.024), Glasgow-Blatchford bleeding score (GBS) (OR = 2.348; 95% CI, 1.686-3.269; P < 0.001), and age-corrected Charlson comorbidity index (aCCI) (OR = 1.522; 95% CI, 1.185-1.954; P < 0.001), and small intestinal vascular malformation (OR = 0.3722; 95% CI, 0.161-0.858; P = 0.020).

Conclusion For MHD patients with concomitant GIB, APTT, GBS, aCCI, and small intestinal vascular malformation are independent risk factors for in-hospital death.