[Percutaneous therapeutic embolization in therapy refractory, non-traumatic epistaxis]

The records of 24 patients with severe intractable non-traumatic epistaxis were reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of embolism therapy.

The histories of 17 patients with idiopathic epistaxis, 6 patients with Osler-Rendu-Weber disease and 1 patient with a high-flow angioma were analyzed. All patients were treated by means of percutaneous embolization of the maxillary artery and its branches.

In 5/17 patients with idiopathic epistaxis repeat embolization was necessary in 5 cases, while permanent hemostasis was achieved in 16/17 patients with embolism alone. Five of the 6 patients with Osler-Rendu-Weber disease labelled stage III before treatment were managed successfully with repeated embolizations, while all cases were reduced to stage I disease. The high-flow angioma was successfully ablated after embolization combined with direct injection of thrombosing material and laser resection.