Peer Reviewed
Practical procedures
Epistaxis management for general practitioners
Abstract
Patients with epistaxis caused by a simple ruptured blood vessel can be treated by the attending physician; those with more serious causes of their epistaxis should be referred to an ENT surgeon for assessment.
Key Points
Epistaxis is a common condition often seen by GPs and doctors manning the emergency room. Patients present either with a history of recurrent episodes of bleeding or with active bleeding. Patients who are actively bleeding need to be managed according to the protocol below before being assessed as either low or high risk, while those who are not actively bleeding need to have a history taken and examination performed before the epistaxis site is managed.
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