Characteristics of Epistaxis Patients at Sanglah General Hospital, Denpasar from January 2015-December 2016

ABSTRACT Epistaxis is one of the most common emergencies in ENT Department. Incidence of epistaxis varies greatly with age. There is a bimodal distribution with peaks in children and older adult. Epistaxis appears to occur more often in males than in female. Epistaxis is not a disease but a symptom or a manifestation of another disease. Most are mild and can be stopped without medical help whereas severe epistaxis is a disease problem that can be fatal if not treated promptly. The etiology of epistaxis can be divided into local and systemic factors. The principle of treatment is to stop bleeding, prevent complications and prevent recurrent epistaxis. The aim of our study to know the characteristic of patients with epistaxis attending Sanglah General Hospital. A descriptive study, using database of patient with epistaxis attending to Sanglah General Hospital from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016. A total of 195 cases of epistaxis were obtained. The maximum number of cases were in the age group of 11-20 years (23.1%). Males were affected more frequently than female. In this study, 125 cases (64,1%) were male and 70 cases (35,9%) female, with a ratio of 1.8 : 1. The most common cause of epistaxis was found to be trauma (34,9%) and followed by hypertension (24,1%). It may be concluded from this study that epistaxis is the most common ENT emergencies, affecting all age group. It has bimodal age presentation and males were affected more than female. The major causes epistaxis are local factors such as trauma leading to systemic factor. Keywords: Epistaxis, Age, Sex, Etiology factors.