ABSTRACT
Background: Epistaxis remains a common otorhinolaryngological emergency in most hospital emergency departments with varied manifestations. The pattern as seen in a tertiary health institution in sokoto; Nigeria is the subject of this paper. Method: This is a 5 year retrospective study (January 1995-December 1999) of all cases of epistaxis presenting at or referred to the Ear; Nose and Throat (ENT) Department of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) Sokoto; Nigeria whose data were analyzed. Results: A total number of 72 cases were seen with epistaxis out of 3;706 new cases seen at the ENT clinic. The incidence of epistaxis amongst UDUTH ENT patients was 19/1000.There were 45 males (62.5) and 27 Females (37.5) with a male to female ratio of 1.7:1.Their ages ranged between 1and 70 years with the 0-10 age range recording the highest number (26.4).The commonest cause of epistaxis was idiopathic (29.2); followed by trauma (27.8) and hypertension (18.0).Non surgical methods (97.2) such as observation alone (34.7) without active intervention to arrest bleeding; and nasal packing (34.7);being the commonest intervention measures used to actively arrest bleeding followed by cauterization of the bleeding points (11.1) were the frequent treatment measures. Surgical extirpation was carried out in 2 cases (2.8) to arrest the epistaxis Conclusion: Although epistaxis is a common otorhinolaryngological emergency and varied in its manifestation; it affects mainly the young peoplein this environment with idiopathic; trauma; and hypertension being the common causes which are amendable to treatment with excellent results