Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 May;7(5):831-3.
doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2013/4421.2995. Epub 2013 May 1.

Rigid nasal endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of epistaxis

Vinay Kumar M V  1 , Raghavendra Prasad K U, Belure Gowda P R, Manohar S R, Chennaveerappa P K
Affiliations

Rigid nasal endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of epistaxis

Vinay Kumar M V et al. J Clin Diagn Res. 2013 May.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Epistaxis is one of the common symptoms encountered in the Otorhinolaryngology department. Many times the cause for epistaxis is not found on anterior and posterior rhinoscopy. The present study was undertaken to assess the role of rigid nasal endoscope in the diagnosis and treatment of epistaxis, where normal anterior and posterior rhinoscopy did not reveal any specific finding.

Methods: Fifty patients with epistaxis were studied using rigid nasal endoscope under local anaesthesia. Patients who were above 15 years with nasal bleeding and who were willing for rigid nasal endoscopy were included in the study. Patients less than 15 years were not included in the study because nasal endoscopy was difficult in them under local anaesthesia. Only those patients in whom, the cause for epistaxis could not be made out on anterior and posterior rhinoscopy were chosen for the study, this was done in order to remove the bias for nasal endoscopy.

Results: The use of the nasal endoscope allowed diagnosis of bleeding points and treating them directly. Epistaxis was more in male patients especially in the 3rd and after the 5th decade. On endoscopic examination,the bleeding points were identified as coming from the crevices of the lateral nasal wall, posterior spur on the septum, posterior deviation of the septum with ulcer, congested polyps, enlarged and congested adenoids, scabs or crusts in the crevices of the lateral nasal wall and angiofibroma. Endoscope also helps in the treatment of epistaxis, which includes endoscopic selective nasal packing using gelfoam, endoscopic cautery or diathermy and endoscopic polypectomy. Other patients with adenoids, scabs and crusts and angiofibroma were managed on their merits.

Interpretation and conclusion: Nasal endoscopy helps not only in the localisation of the bleeding point but also in the treatment of those bleeding areas that are situated in the posterior and lateral part of the nose.

Keywords: Cautery or diathermy; Epistaxis; Rigid nasal endoscope; Selective nasal packing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

  • Clinical Practice Guideline: Nosebleed (Epistaxis).
    Tunkel DE, Anne S, Payne SC, Ishman SL, Rosenfeld RM, Abramson PJ, Alikhaani JD, Benoit MM, Bercovitz RS, Brown MD, Chernobilsky B, Feldstein DA, Hackell JM, Holbrook EH, Holdsworth SM, Lin KW, Lind MM, Poetker DM, Riley CA, Schneider JS, Seidman MD, Vadlamudi V, Valdez TA, Nnacheta LC, Monjur TM. Tunkel DE, et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020 Jan;162(1_suppl):S1-S38. doi: 10.1177/0194599819890327. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020. PMID: 31910111
  • Clinical Practice Guideline: Nosebleed (Epistaxis) Executive Summary.
    Tunkel DE, Anne S, Payne SC, Ishman SL, Rosenfeld RM, Abramson PJ, Alikhaani JD, Benoit MM, Bercovitz RS, Brown MD, Chernobilsky B, Feldstein DA, Hackell JM, Holbrook EH, Holdsworth SM, Lin KW, Lind MM, Poetker DM, Riley CA, Schneider JS, Seidman MD, Vadlamudi V, Valdez TA, Nnacheta LC, Monjur TM. Tunkel DE, et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020 Jan;162(1):8-25. doi: 10.1177/0194599819889955. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020. PMID: 31910122 Review.
  • Study of hemostasis procedures for posterior epistaxis.
    Iimura J, Hatano A, Ando Y, Arai C, Arai S, Shigeta Y, Kojima H, Otori N, Wada K. Iimura J, et al. Auris Nasus Larynx. 2016 Jun;43(3):298-303. doi: 10.1016/j.anl.2015.09.015. Epub 2015 Oct 31. Auris Nasus Larynx. 2016. PMID: 26527519
  • A blind area of origins of epistaxis: technical or cognitive?
    Wei W, Lai Y, Zang C, Luo J, Zhu B, Liu Q, Liu Y. Wei W, et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2018 Jun;275(6):1501-1505. doi: 10.1007/s00405-018-4983-7. Epub 2018 Apr 24. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2018. PMID: 29691639
  • [Epistaxis in children].
    François M. François M. Arch Pediatr. 1996 Aug;3(8):806-13. doi: 10.1016/0929-693x(96)82166-x. Arch Pediatr. 1996. PMID: 8998537 Review. French.
See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Dhingra PL, Dhingra Shruti. Diseases of Ear, Nose and Throat. 5th edition. Elsevier; 2010. Epistaxis. In: pp. 189–93.
    1. Santos Rodrigo P, Leonhard Fernando D, Ferri Ricardo G, Gregorio Luiz C. Endoscopic endonasal ligation of the sphenopalatine artery for severe epistaxis. Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology. 2002;68(4):511–14.
    1. Safaya A, Venkatachalam VP, Chaudhary N. Nasal Endoscopy-Evaluation in Epistaxis. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery. 2000;52(2):133–36. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chhapola Sunita, Matta Inita, Marker Pratima. Comparison of blind nasal packing vs endoscopic control of epistaxis in an emergency setting. International Journal of Head and Neck Surgery. 2011;2(2):79–82.
    1. Stammberger Heinz. In: Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. Mosby; In: Endoscopic and Radiologic Diagnosis; pp. 148–55.

LinkOut - more resources