The patient can lose significant amounts of blood within just a few hours. Death can occur rapidly without proper treatment.

Throwing up blood from ruptured esophageal varices can occur in patients with liver cirrhosis from other causes, like chronic hepatitis and some genetic liver disease. By far, alcoholic liver disease is the most common cause of liver cirrhosis in the United States. Alcoholics are more prone to getting their esophageal veins ruptured as they frequently have nausea, forceful vomiting and retching from drinking too much alcohol.

Not all alcoholics with the symptoms of throwing up blood have bleeding from the esophageal varices. Other common causes of throwing up blood in alcoholics are bleeding stomach ulcers and simple tears of the food pipes.

When someone develops throwing up blood after drinking, it is very difficult to know if it is the bleeding from esophageal varices or something else. Only an experienced Emergency Department doctor can make an educated guess about the cause after doing some rapid blood tests and evaluation.

Patients with possible variceal bleeding are referred emergently to a liver and gastrointestinal specialist that may be able to perform a specialized procedure to try to stop the bleeding before the patient dies from loss of blood.