Hypertension: a common cause of epistaxis in adults

ABSTRACT

Epistaxis is a very common event and one of the commonest reasons of emergency admission in ENT wards. In the year 1993, 116 cases of epistaxis in adult age group presented in our departments. Hypertension was the most common cause of epistaxis in our series i.e. 68 cases out of 116 [57.8%]. Majority of these hypertensive patients were between the ages of 40 and 60 years [70.6%]. The mean systolic blood pressure in our series was found to be 197.4 mm of Hg, and mean diastolic blood pressure was 128.3 mm of Hg. In 30 patients [44.1%] there was no previous history of epistaxis. All the cases were managed by anterior nasal packing, antihypertensive drugs and other supportive therapy