Comparative Study of Topical Application of Injection Tranexamic Acid and Anterior Nasal Packing in the Management of Epistaxis

Epistaxis, defined as bleeding from the nose, is one of the common ENT cases coming to emergency department. Epistaxis is experienced by at least 60% of the population once in their life time and about 6% of them will require medical attention. The different treatment modalities include: local pressure, application of topical vasoconstrictor substances, or nasal packing depending on personal physician preference. Tranexamic acid (TXA), a synthetic analogue of the amino acid lysine, belongs to a class of drugs known as antifibrinolytics. It acts by reversibly binding four to five lysine receptor sites on plasminogen and can be used in emergency department for reducing the bleeding time in epistaxis. To evaluate the efficacy of topical application of injection TXA compared to cases managed with anterior nasal packing for the treatment of patients with epistaxis. 100 patients presenting with epistaxis in emergency department, above the age of 18 years were randomly divided into two groups with 50 patients each. Group 1 were managed with anterior nasal packing with gel foam and Group 2 with topical application of injection TXA. Causes,duration to control epistaxis, and occurrence of rebleeding were recorded. Our study showed homogenous distribution of age and sex among the patients. Bleeding stopped within 10 min in 38 patients in group 2 compared to 17 patients in group 1. For 31 patients in group 1, bleeding stopped between 10 and 15 min compared to 12 in group 2. In group 1, 8 patients had rebleeding compared to 2 patients in group 2. Our study showed that topical application of TXA reduces the bleeding time and number of rebleeds compared to anterior nasal packing with gelfoam. Since it is easily available in an emergency setup and cheaper compared to gelfoam, it can be used as an elective method in managing epistaxis in emergency department.