Suturing of Little's area of the nasal septum for epistaxis.

BACKGROUND

Epistaxis is a common condition presenting to emergency and ENT clinics. Most epistaxis bleeding originates from Little's area of the nasal septum. Some cases of refractory epistaxis cannot be resolved with packing or electrocoagulation.

METHOD: The suturing technique applied is widely used in surgery. When faced with pulsatile, recurrent bleeding from Little's area of the nasal septum, all rhinologists should possess the skills to be able to suture the bleeding site, especially after failure of local cautery or packing.

CASE REPORT: The authors have successfully treated four difficult cases of nasal bleeding from Little's area by suturing.

CONCLUSION

This technique could eliminate the discomfort and complications of nasal packing. To the best of our knowledge, this report probably represents the first published case series of suturing of Little's area to treat recurrent nasal bleeding. More cases need to be treated in this way to enable further evaluation of the technique.