No lifting greater than five pounds
No straining
No bending
Sneeze with your mouth open
No nose blowing
Sleep with your upper body elevated
Do not bend over to tie your shoes - Use slippers or loafers
Cool diet - Liquids or food at room temperature or cooler
Use a cool mist humidifier with a filter
Saline mist nasal spray - Two sprays to each nostril four times each day


Epistaxis/Nose Bleed Information
The nose is the filter and heat exchanger for your lung. To perform these functions, the nose is full of blood vessels and will crust up as it filters out the dirty particles in the air. We need to clean out our nose, the filter. During the cleaning process (blowing your nose or digitally cleaning your nose), a blood vessel can break and bleed. A blood clot and scab form to stop bleeding. If you remove the blood clot or scab too early, the nosebleed comes back. Several nosebleeds within a few days are the result of the same broken blood vessel from the scab falling off too early. In essence, it’s one nosebleed. It takes about 2 weeks for the broken blood vessel to heal. The best treatment option is conservative medical care for 2 weeks. Let your body heal naturally and spontaneously. If this does not resolve your Epistaxis, each additional treatment method carries increasing discomfort and risks.

Conservative Medical Treatment: 1. Moisturize your nose -
•    Use saline nasal spray followed by ointment, e.g. Vaseline petroleum jelly or antibiotic ointment applied five times a day for 2 weeks. Use a kidney bean sized amount of ointment at the nostril opening. Sniff the ointment into the nose.
•    Drink plenty of water.
•    Use a humidifier or vaporizer at your bedside. 2. No nose blowing, rubbing, or picking for 2 weeks to allow the broken blood vessel to heal. 3. Sneeze with your mouth wide open. 4. Elevate the head of your bed at all times. 5. Avoid Coumadin/Warfarin, aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin), Naproxen and Aleve, which can prolong bleeding, unless these are medically necessary. Discuss this with your primary care provider. Do not stop Coumadin or Warfarin on your own without your primary care doctor’s permission. 8. Your blood pressure needs to be well controlled. If not, contact your primary care provider.
Cauterization: If conservative medical treatment does not work, a numbing spray can be applied to your nose. It stings a little as the spray works to numb your nasal membrane. A silver nitrate cautery stick is then applied to burn the bleeding vessel area. This technique does not work well when you are actively bleeding. The cauterized area will form a large scab. You still need to do conservative medical care for the
next 2 weeks. If you disturb and knock off this scab too early by cleaning or blowing your nose, you may suffer a much larger nosebleed. Once this cauterized area heals, the nosebleed will go away. This is not a permanent cure. The cauterized blood vessel will grow back in a few months or another blood vessel will break. There is no permanent cure for nosebleeds.
Nasal Packing: If cauterization does not work, you will need nasal packing to put pressure on the bleeding area. This is achieved by inserting a Merocel pack into the bleeding nostril. This process is painful but necessary to stop a larger nosebleed. This process also abrades more nasal mucosa and can cause more nosebleeds unless the packing is left in the nostril for 3-5 days. You may continue to have minor bloody drainage around the packing for 48 hours after insertion of Merocel nasal packing. This is normal. If Merocel packing fails, Epistat balloon packing may be placed. This type of packing is very painful compared to Merocel packing. After removal of nasal packing, you still need to do conservative medical care for the next 2 weeks. Blowing your nose right away after the packing is removed may start up the nosebleed again and require anther packing for 3-5 days.
Arterial Embolization: If your nosebleed continues after failed nasal packing, the nosebleed is now considered severe. You will probably need to stop coumadin/warfarin if you are taking these medications. You may also require a blood transfusion at this time. Your doctors will discuss these issues with you. There is usually no time to arrange for autologous or designated donor blood. Banked blood is usually the best choice. You may check blood transfusion information in the Pre Op area of my website for further information on blood transfusion.
The best option to stop your nosebleed at this time is to perform an arteriogram to identify the bleeding vessel and embolize (clot off) the blood vessel if possible. There are 2 groups of blood vessels feeding into your nose. The posterior group is amenable to embolization. The superior group feeds the nose through the brain and the eye and is not amenable to embolization.
Embolization requires a puncture on the femoral artery in the leg. A catheter is threaded to the aorta and carotid arteries. A dye is injected to identify the major blood vessel feeding the nosebleed, usually the internal maxillary artery in the posterior group of blood vessels. Clotting materials are injected to clot off the artery. The risk of this procedure is bleeding from the leg artery puncture and a small risk of strokes from the clotting materials
injected. You may also have chronic facial pain from reduced blood supply to your face. After the embolization, you still need to do conservative medical care for the next 2 weeks.
Surgery: If your nosebleed is from the superior group of blood vessels (ophthalmic artery feeding into ethmoid arteries), the only technique to control your nosebleed is by surgery. A cut is made between the eye and the nose to expose the ethmoid arteries. Surgical clips are used to tie off the arteries. After surgery, you still need to do conservative medical care for the next 2 weeks.
Summary: Most nosebleeds are minor and do not cause any serious health issues. Nosebleeds are especially common in children. My head and neck surgery colleague commented that he can not have a pool party without one of the invited children having a nosebleed. Nosebleeds are also common in adults. We just do not discuss them at social gatherings. There is no convenient time to have a nose bleed. Luckily, most nosebleeds are stopped with conservative medical treatment. Few patients need cauterization. Much fewer patients need packing. Rarely, patients need embolization and surgery.
Patients on coumadin/warfarin or nasal oxygen are also at higher risk for nosebleeds. These patients may need to learn how to live with minor nosebleeds and manage them conservatively because the alternative is to stop coumadin/warfarin or oxygen. This alternative tends to put these patients at serious health risks. Please discuss these issue with you primary medical doctor.