Abstract

Purpose of this study was to observe if there was any increase in epistaxis admissions to hospital after the introduction of routine population wide nasal swabbing. This study looked at difference in epistaxis admissions from 2020 and 2021 across the 9 NHS Trusts in the Southwest.This study found that there were less hospital admissions in 2021 due to epistaxis. This could be due to the widespread fear amongst the populace at the time of attending hospital due risk of COVID-19 and of overburdening the hospital. Patient's that did present to ED may have received more effective epistaxis management with biodegradable nasal pacs and topical haemostatic matrices. However there are many confounding factors, thus it is important to avoid over interpretation of the data.