[Arteriovenous malformation complicated by serious recurrent epistaxis]

Arteriovenous malformations in the region of the head and the neck are rarely manifested by epistaxis. These lesions are usually treated by the vascular surgeon, neurosurgeon, maxillofacial surgeon etc. Anyhow, the role of the specialist in otorhinolaryngology is indispensable when epistaxis gives morphological and functional modifications of the organs in the region of the head and neck. The paper reports on a particular case of severe, relapsing epistaxis, secondary to a geniomasseteric, right, invasive, cavernous hemangioma. The patient was admitted, for four times, in the period 1982-1984, into the O.R.L. clinic, Timişoara, and for two times into the clinic of maxillofacial surgery for severe, relapsing epistaxes in the right nasal pit. In 1983, the ligature of the external carotid artery and the partial ablation of the hemangioma were performed. In 1984, at a new right massive epistaxis, the nasal hemorrhage could not be arrested, and the patient died on November 10, 1984 due to a hemorrhagic shock.