Aim: To find the best treatment for spontaneous epistaxis by a conservative approach or by an intervention with silver nitrate cautery.
Study design: A prospective study with two groups which were randomly selected for the conservative management or cautery.
Materials and methods: 94 patients are studied in two groups of 42 patients who were treated conservatively and 52 patients who were treated with silver nitrate cautery. The patients were followed up for 1 week and the results were tabulated with regards to the recurrence of the bleeding.
Results: Both the groups of patients who were treated conser-vatively or with cautery showed minimal recurrent bleeding with rates of 30% and 26% respectively. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the outcome. The pain was more in the cases which were treated with cautery.
Conclusion: Both the groups of patients who were treated conservatively or with cautery showed equal rates of the outcome, with the pain being slightly more in the group which was treated with cautery.
Keywords: Epistaxis; Neomycin Ointment; Silver nitrate cautery.