Objective: To distinguish which nosebleeds in children hide an underlying coagulation disorder, characteristics of recurrent epistaxis were evaluated correlating the severity with a battery of specific tests on primary and secondary hemostasis.
Patients and methods: Epistaxis of fifty-eight children were classified as mild or severe according to frequency, duration, amount of blood lost, proportion of life that nosebleeds have been recurrent and uni- or bilateral bleeding. Epidemiological characteristics were evaluated, as well as hemostatic tests including: platelet count, mean platelet volume, plasmatic fibrinogen level, prothrombine time, activated partial thromboplastin time, thrombin time, bleeding time, von Willebrand factor antigen and ristocetin cofactor, factor VIII coagulant, and platelet aggregation to different agents. The effect of drugs or the presence of tumors was discarded.
Results: In the group of children with mild epistaxis (n = 39) there were three cases with laboratory abnormalities (10.3%). In severe epistaxis (n = 19) abnormalities were found in eleven cases (57.9%) and specific entities were detected in six of them (three children with von Willebrand's disease, one Bernard-Soulier syndrome, one autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura and one Rendü-Osler-Weber disease). Epistaxis labeled as mild needed less cauterizations and packings, were more related to seasonal prevalence and self-handling, and poorly influenced iron metabolism.
Conclusions: The five qualities pointed out on recurrent epistaxis in children allow the identification of who must be thoroughly studied by means of specific tests to rule out any kind of hemostatic disorder.