Epistaxis: some aspects of laterality in 326 patients

Abstract

Lateralization of primary epistaxis was prospectively studied in 326 patients at Radebeul Elblandklinikum. The male-female-ratio was 1.3:1. A slight dominance of the right side (45% right vs. 39% left) was found in all patients. Further analyzed were the relationship to the localization of bleeding (anterior or posterior), the age and possible causes or risk factors. Nose bleeding from the posterior nasal portion appears to be statistically significantly higher than on both sides of anterior epistaxis. No statistically significant age dependence of laterality of epistaxis was observed in the age groups which we selected. However, nosebleed appears more frequently in women under the age of 50 years in both nostrils. With identified risk factors, idiopathic epistaxis occurs more frequently on the right side than does nosebleed. Mechanical trauma (intranasal sprays or nose picking) is a possible factor explaining the dominance of epistaxis on the right side, especially in idiopathic cases.

Prevalence and Clinical Profile of Epistaxis at a Private Otolaryngology Clinic, Ramadi City, Iraq

“…There is a belief that in 85% of the cases of epistaxis, there is no identifiable cause [26]. Contrary to this belief, our study and several others reported that there is a proven cause of epistaxis in considerable percentages of their studied sample [12,25,27].…”

“…Send et al reported that anterior epistaxis was encountered in 76.7% of their cases [21]. Another study from Germany also reported that anterior epistaxis (85%) was more prevalent than posterior (13%) [25]. Our study revealed that the vast majority of the cases were had anterior epistaxis (97.1%).…”