Efficacy and Safety of Intranasal Medical Management in Pediatric Patients with Idiopathic Recurrent Epistaxis

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to verify the efficacy and safety of topical medical treatment in idiopathic recurrent pediatric epistaxis patients by intranasal usage of both an antimicrobial and a moisturizing agent as a first-step management modality. METHOD: Sixty-seven out of 326 pediatric patients with idiopathic recurrent epistaxis selected on a chart review of follow-up were enrolled in the study. The study was designed as an analysis of two groups: one group included 35 individuals (52.2% of the total cohort) having a hyperemic nasal mucosa and the second group included 32 individuals (47.8% of the total cohort) having a hypervascular nasal mucosa on physical examination before treatment. RESULTS: The study was performed with a total of 67 children (age range 3-17 years) including 36 males (53.7% of total cohort) and 31 females (46.3% of total cohort). The mean age was 9.78±4.09 years. There was not any statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of age, duration of follow-up and recurrence time of epistaxis (p>0.05). Recurrence of epistaxis was seen in 22.9% (8/35) of hyperemic nasal mucosa group and in 34.4% (11/32) of hypervascular nasal mucosa group (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: We advise the use of both an intranasal antimicrobial ointment and a mucosal moisturizing gel as an effective, noninvasive and easily applicable medical treatment option for pediatric patients with idiopathic recurrent epistaxis before more invasive methods of epistaxis control.