Treatment of Posterior Epistaxis with Posterior Endoscopic Laser Photocoagulation / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Epistaxis is a common otolaryngologic emergency. Posterior epitaxis is more frequent in the elderly and associates with hypertension and arteriosclerosis. This is apt to be more vigorous in volume, is more difficult to identify the active bleeding point, and is more troublesome to contol. A number of different treatments are used to control the posterior epistaxis. Some of these are deep anterior packing, posterior packing, nasal balloon tamponade, arterial ligation, arterial embolization and posterior endoscopic cautery. Recently we directly photocoagulated the bleeding points in 7 cases of posterior epistaxis using endoscope and KTP/532 laser. The epistaxis was controlled in all cases without any significant complication.