Why does vomiting of blood occur in critically ill patients?

  Frequent vomiting from any cause may be seen with a small amount of blood in the vomitus, often due to a rupture of the pharyngeal or esophageal mucosa caused by a violent vomiting action, just as blood in the sputum is seen with a rupture of the tracheal mucosa caused by a violent cough. What we are talking about here is a larger amount of gastrointestinal bleeding. This type of bleeding comes from the stomach and often the bleeding has accumulated in the stomach for a certain amount of time, has become stale, and has become a coffee-colored liquid by mixing with gastric juice, so that it does not look like blood when it is vomited. This condition is medically called vomiting coffee-colored liquid, which actually refers to gastrointestinal bleeding.  Gastrointestinal bleeding in stroke patients is most often seen in severe cerebral hemorrhage, especially ventricular hemorrhage and hemorrhage deep in the cerebral hemispheres. The larger amount of bleeding in these areas is not only due to acute intracranial pressure elevation, but also due to the specific site of bleeding, which causes compression of one of the midline brain structures, the subthalamus. Impairment of the function of the hypothalamus, which is the center of the autonomic (vegetative) nervous and endocrine system, can induce impaired vasodilation and increased gastric acid secretion in the stomach, leading to acute ulceration and bleeding of the gastric mucosa, which some call stress ulcer bleeding.  Gastrointestinal hemorrhage is a poor prognosis for patients with cerebral hemorrhage, not primarily because of the gastrointestinal hemorrhage itself, but because it often reflects a deep cerebral hemorrhage, a large amount of bleeding, or a significant increase in intracranial pressure. In such cases, the patient is often in a deep coma and tends to develop respiratory and circulatory failure very quickly, hence the poor prognosis. Of course, a large amount of gastrointestinal bleeding can also cause a drop in blood pressure, and the constant accumulation of stomach contents can also exacerbate vomiting, which may be inhaled into the airway in comatose patients and cause asphyxia or lung infection, all of which can also aggravate the condition.