Diagnosis and analysis of causes of small intestinal bleeding WANG Ting, WANG Ling LING Rui, et al. Department of Vascular Surgery, XI JING Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, China Corresponding author：WANG Ting, E-mail：ting_w100@126.com Abstract Objective To summarize the diagnosis and treatment experiences and causes of small intestinal bleeding. Methods The clinical data of 74 cases of small intestinal bleeding admitted between 1990 and 2004 in the No 3 Department of General Surgery, XI JING Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University were analyzed retrospectively. The causes of bleeding in all the cases were confirmed by surgery and pathology. Results The main cause of small intestinal hemorrhage was tumor (41.9%), while the other causes in turn were small intestinal diverticulum (25.7%), vasculopathy (23.0%), and inflammatory small intestinal diseases (9.5%). But to young cases (≤45), the main causes of small intestinal hemorrhage were small intestinal diverticulum (42.1%) and tumor (28.9%), while they were tumor (55.6%) and vasculopathy (27.8%) to aged cases (＞45). All the cases were treated by operation. Conclusion Tumor is the most common cause of small intestinal bleeding. Other causes are small intestinal diverticulum, inflammatory small intestinal diseases and angiodysplasia. The double-contrast barium meal, angiography and radionucleide scanning were the main diagnostic methods for small intestinal bleeding. Abdominal laparotomy was also a diagnostic method if the results of auxiliary examinations were negative.