Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of emergency transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) in the treatment of acute non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (ANVUGIB), and to analyze the corresponding relationship between the bleeding signs and the efficacy of digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 80 patients with ANVUGIB who underwent emergency TAE treatment at Lankao First Hospital from January 2021 to December 2025. All patients were treated with DSA angiography to confirm the bleeding arteries and bleeding signs, and were embolized with gelatin sponge, microcoil or a combination of both according to the signs. Moreover, the technical success rate, clinical success rate, 30-day rebleeding rate and complication rate were recorded, and the differences in efficacy of different DSA sign classifications were compared. Results The technical success rate was 96.25% (77/80), the clinical success rate was 90.00% (72/80), the rebleeding rate within 30 days was 8.75% (7/80), the incidence of major complications was 6.25% (5/80), and there were no cases of embolism-related intestinal ischemia and death. DSA signs were divided into four types: contrast agent spillover type (38 cases), pseudoaneurysm type (22 cases), vascular wall defect/osmotic type (12 cases) and contrast negative type (8 cases). The success rate of contrast agent spillover type and pseudoaneurysm type was 100%, while the success rate of contrast negative type was only 62.50% (5/8), and all differences were statistically significant (all P＜0.05). Conclusion Emergency TAE treatment of ANVUGIB is safe and effective, especially for patients who have failed endoscopic treatment or are intolerant to endoscopy. At the same time, the classification of DSA bleeding signs has important guiding value in the selection of embolization strategy and prediction of curative effect, and patients with negative angiography need to combine superselective intubation and empirical embolization for comprehensive judgment.