Epidemiology of epistaxes admitted to a tertiary hospital

Epistaxis has been known since antiquity. However, we have limited epidemiological data at our disposal. The aim of this study is to know the main epidemiological characteristics of the cases of epistaxis admitted and to determine the factors associated with the recurrence of bleeding.

A retrospective study was conducted including admissions for epistaxis in the ENT department of our hospital during the period between January, 2003, and December, 2008. We analyzed the distribution by gender, age, location and time of year. The aetiological causes identified included systemic and local factors. We analyzed the variables related to bleeding recurrence.

We evaluated 178 cases of epistaxis: 68% of patients were male (121/178), compared to 32% of women (57/178). The median age (p25-p75) was 65 (53-75) years. The epistaxes were most noticeable during the months of January and April. Among the systemic causes, hypertension (56%), anti-platelet treatment (23%) and anti-coagulant therapies (18.5%) predominated. Local factors were much less numerous than general ones (11% v. 68%). Recurrent bleeding was present in 14% of cases (25/178) and only the posterior location was shown to influence this variable (P<.05).

The typical pattern of the patients admitted to our department for epistaxis is a middle-aged or elderly male with underlying co-morbidity and posterior epistaxis.