Is it safe to cauterise both sides of the nasal septum at the same time
in children with nosebleeds?
Abstract
Objective It is often recommended that, in children with
bilateral epistaxis, only one side of the nasal septum should be
cauterised at a time in order to reduce the risk of septal perforation.
This advice may have been reasonable when hot wire electrocautery was in
common use. The risk of septal perforation after silver nitrate cautery
is unknown but probably low. Methods Retrospective casenote
review of children attending the nurse-led epistaxis clinic between 2019
and 2022. Results Nine hundred and twenty children were seen in
the nurse-led clinic between January 2019 and December 2022. Six hundred
and one children (79%) underwent nasal cautery. Simultaneous bilateral
nasal cautery was carried out in 176 (29%) children. Our follow up
period ranged between 303 days and 1,744 days, with a median of 809.5
days. No child presented to emergency or ENT services with septal
perforation or any other complication of simultaneous bilateral nasal
cautery. Conclusion To the author’s knowledge, this is the
largest study assessing the safety of simultaneous bilateral nasal
cautery with silver nitrate in children. No adverse results have been
found after cauterising both sides of the septum at the same sitting,
and doing so potentially saves time and money for patients and the
health service.