The clinical features of epistaxis in the posterior fornix of inferior meatus and its comprehensive treatment measures / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#To summarize the clinical features of epistaxis in the posterior fornix of inferior meatus and its comprehensive treatment measures.@*METHOD@#We collected and retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 212 cases of epistaxis hospitalized in our department, among which 23 cases were diagnosed as epistaxis in the posterior fornix of inferior meatus. They underwent nasal endoscopic exploration and coagulation surgery with one case under general anesthesia and the other 22 under local anesthesia. The bleeding from olfactory cleft, spheno-ethmoidal recess and the middle nasal meatus were excluded for all the patients during the surgery. After shifting the inferior turbinate inward by fracture, the active bleeding was found in the posterior fornix of inferior meatus, which was stopped immediately by bipolar coagulation. The areas of coagulation and nasal mucosa erosion were packed with nasopore after operation.@*RESULT@#For all the patients, bleeding spots were definitely located during the operation and successfully coagulated. None of them suffered from recurrent-bleeding within 1 week postoperatively. Followed up for 6 to 12 months, there was no epstaxis recurrence or nasal cavity adhesion at the bled side in all patients.@*CONCLUSION@#For intractable epistaxis patient, after excluding the bleeding in olfactory cleft, sphenoethmoidal recess and the middle nasal meatus, it should be considered that the bleeding might come from posterior fornix of inferior meatus. It is the key point to thoroughly expose the posterior fornix of inferior meatus by shifting the inferior turbinate inward by fracture and explore for the bleeding spot carefully.