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Coffee ground vomitus refers to a particular appearance of vomit
Vomiting

Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Undesired vomiting may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure....
. Blood contains iron within heme
Heme

A heme or haem is a prosthetic group that consists of an iron atom contained in the center of a large heterocyclic organic ring called a porphyrin....
 molecules in red blood cells. When this iron has been exposed to gastric acid
Gastric acid

Gastric acid is one of the main secretions of the stomach, together with several enzymes and intrinsic factor. Chemically it is an acid solution with a pH of 1 to 2 in the stomach lumen , consisting mainly of hydrochloric acid , and large quantities of potassium chloride and sodium chloride ....
 for some time, it becomes oxidized. This reaction causes the vomitus to look like ground coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
. Coffee-ground vomitus is a classic sign of upper gastro-intestinal bleeding. A peptic ulcer
Peptic ulcer

A peptic ulcer, also known as ulcus pepticum, PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is an ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful....
, for example, may bleed into the stomach and produce coffee-ground vomitus.






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Encyclopedia


Coffee ground vomitus refers to a particular appearance of vomit
Vomiting

Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Undesired vomiting may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure....
. Blood contains iron within heme
Heme

A heme or haem is a prosthetic group that consists of an iron atom contained in the center of a large heterocyclic organic ring called a porphyrin....
 molecules in red blood cells. When this iron has been exposed to gastric acid
Gastric acid

Gastric acid is one of the main secretions of the stomach, together with several enzymes and intrinsic factor. Chemically it is an acid solution with a pH of 1 to 2 in the stomach lumen , consisting mainly of hydrochloric acid , and large quantities of potassium chloride and sodium chloride ....
 for some time, it becomes oxidized. This reaction causes the vomitus to look like ground coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
. Coffee-ground vomitus is a classic sign of upper gastro-intestinal bleeding. A peptic ulcer
Peptic ulcer

A peptic ulcer, also known as ulcus pepticum, PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is an ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful....
, for example, may bleed into the stomach and produce coffee-ground vomitus. When bright red blood is vomited, this is termed hematemesis
Hematemesis

Hematemesis or haematemesis is the vomiting of blood. The source is generally the upper gastrointestinal tract. Patients can easily confuse it with hemoptysis , although the former is more common....
. Hematemesis, in contrast to coffee ground vomitus, suggests that upper gastrointestinal bleeding is more acute or more severe, or originates more proximally than the stomach: for example, in the esophagus due to a Mallory-Weiss tear.

Oxidized blood from an upper gastrointestinal bleed can also be excreted in stool. It produces tarry, blackened stools known as melena
Melena

In medicine, melena or melaena refers to the black, "tarry" feces that are associated with gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The black color is caused by oxidation of the iron in hemoglobin during its passage through the ileum and colon ....
.

See also

  • Upper gastrointestinal bleed