PurposeThe purpose of this retrospective study was to identify the impact of oral anticoagulants on epistaxis with the focus on new oral anticoagulants.MethodsThe study was conducted at the Department  for Ear- Nose- and Throat (ENT), Head and Neck Surgery, Technical University Munich, Germany. All patients presenting in 2014 with the diagnosis of epistaxis to a specialized ENT accident and emergency department were identified and analyzed in clinical data and medication.Results600 adult cases, with a median age of 66.6 years were identified with active bleeding. 66.8% of all cases were anticoagulated. Classic oral anticoagulants (COAC) were three times more common in patients than new-generation oral anticoagulants (NOAC). Recurrent bleeding was significantly associated with oral anticoagulants (OAC) (p = 0.014) and bleeding location was most often anterior (p = 0.006). In contrast, severe cases, which required surgery or embolization were significantly more likely in non-anticoagulated middle-aged patients with posterior bleedings (p < 0.05). In our epistaxis cohort, OAC were highly overrepresented (40%) when compared to the general German population (1%) but COAC as well as NOAC played only a minor role in severe courses of epistaxis.ConclusionOral anticoagulation, especially with new-generation drugs, is not associated with more complicated and severe courses of epistaxis, but rather with recurrent bleeding. One should keep this information in mind when triaging the patient in the emergency room and when planning further procedures.

BackgroundThe Interventional Neuroradiology is becoming more important in the interdisciplinary treatment of acute haemorrhages due to vascular erosion and vascular tumors in the head and neck area. The authors report on acute extracranial haemorrhage in emergency situations but also on preventive embolization of good vascularized tumors preoperatively and their outcome.MethodsRetrospective analysis of 52 patients, who underwent an interdisciplinary approach of the ORL Department and the Interventional Neuroradiology over 5 ½ years at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Germany. Their outcome was analysed in terms of success of the embolization, blood loss, survival rate and treatment failures.Results39/52 patients were treated for acute haemorrhage. Twenty-five of them attributable to vascular erosion in case of malignant tumors. Affected vessels were the common carotid artery as well as its internal and external parts with branches like the ascending pharyngeal, the facial and the superior thyroid artery.Altogether 27/52 patients were treated for malignant tumors, 25/52 were attributable to acute haemorrhage due to epistaxis, after tonsillectomy, benign tumors and bleeding attributable to inflammations. Treatment of all patients consisted either of an unsuccessful approach via exposure, package of the bleeding, electrocoagulation or surgical ligature followed by embolization or the primary treatment via interventional embolization/stenting.ConclusionsThe common monitoring of patients at the ORL and interventional neuroradiology is an important alternative especially in the treatment of severe acute haemorrhage, following vascular erosion in malignant tumors or benign diseases. But also the preoperative embolization of good vascularized tumors must be taken into account to prevent severe blood loss or acute intraoperative bleeding.

Human adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) have been shown to differentiate into mature adipocytes and to play an important role in creating the vasculature, necessary for white adipose tissue to function. To study the stimulatory capacity of ASC on endothelial progenitor cells we used a commercially available co-culture system (V2a - assay). ASC, isolated from lipoaspirates of 18 healthy patients, were co-cultured for 13 d on endothelial progenitor cells. Using anti CD31 immunostaining, cells that had undergone endothelial differentiation were quantified after the defined co-cultivation period. Endothelial cell differentiation was observed and demonstrated by an increase in area covered by CD31+ cells compared with less to no endothelial cell differentiation in negative and media-only controls. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in supernatant medium collected during the co-cultivation period revealed elevated VEGF levels in the co-culture samples as compared with ASC cultures alone, whereas no increase in adiponectin was detected by ELISA. These findings help to provide further insights in the complex interplay of adipose derived cells and endothelial cells and to better understand the diversity of ASCs in respect of their stimulatory capacity to promote angiogenesis in vitro.