Gastrointestinal bleeding remains one of the most important emergencies in gastroenterology. Despite this, only about 100 abstracts concerning gastrointestinal bleeding (excluding bleeding complicating endoscopic procedures) were presented at this year's Digestive Disease Week (DDW; 7-10 May 2011; Chicago, Illinois, USA), accounting for less than 2% of all presented lectures and posters. It seems that the number of such abstracts has been decreasing over recent years. This may be due in part to the high level of medical care already achieved, especially in the areas of pharmacotherapy and endoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding. In this review of gastrointestinal bleeding, priority has been given to large epidemiological studies reflecting "real life," and abstracts dealing more or less directly with endoscopic management.