The use of bipolar electrocautery in adult epistaxis management: Using audit of one hundred and twenty‐four cases to define a standardised protocol

Epistaxis 2016: national audit of management

“…higher, contrary to evidence previously published (14) . The majority of cautery was performed by junior doctors, though there was little to suggest that outcomes differed between clinician group.…”

Management of idiopathic epistaxis in adults: what’s new?

“…Henderson et al 15 assessed the benefit of implementing a standardised treatment protocol for adult epistaxis management based upon the use of bipolar electrocautery in preference to nasal packing. The study compared the results of epistaxis treatment before and after introduction of the protocol.…”

“…A 2003 retrospective study by Klotz et al 33 found that ligation had a mean length of stay of 2.1 days and $ 3851 of associated costs. Moreover, Henderson et al 15 conducted an analysis on costs before and after application of a protocol teaching junior physicians on the use of cauterisation instead of nasal packing. They found a per-patient average saving of £ 117, and per year £ 43,345 assuming an average of 31 presentations per month.…”

Frequency of epistaxis by months and daytime hours

“…The most common interventions are nasal compression, topical vasoconstrictor agent use and packing (33). Recurrent epistaxis and long periods of hospitalization depends on factors such as poorly controlled systemic diseases, failure to stop medications that increase bleeding tendency, and the application of invasive interventions (34,35). There are publications documenting that electrocauterization has a higher success rate in terms of recurrent epistaxis and significantly reduces hospital stay (36,37).…”