Incidence, risk factors and management of severe post-transsphenoidal epistaxis

Among the major complications of transsphenoidal surgery, less attention has been given to severe postoperative epistaxis, which can lead to devastating consequences. In this study, we reviewed 551 consecutive patients treated over a 4 year period by the senior author to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, etiology and management of immediate and delayed post-transsphenoidal epistaxis. Eighteen patients (3.3%) developed significant postoperative epistaxis – six immediately and 12 delayed (mean postoperative day 10.8). Fourteen patients harbored macroadenomas (78%) and 11 of 18 (61.1%) had complex nasal/sphenoid anatomy. In the immediate epistaxis group, 33% had acute postoperative hypertension. In the delayed group, one had an anterior ethmoidal pseudoaneurysm, and one had restarted anticoagulation on postoperative day 3. We treated the immediate epistaxis group with bedside nasal packing followed by operative re-exploration if conservative measures were unsuccessful. The delayed group underwent bedside nasal hemostasis; if unsuccessful, angiographic embolization was performed. After definitive treatment, no patients had recurrent epistaxis.