Back to Homepage
Not all nosebleeds are benign. We have to differentiate when a nosebleed is something you can try and tackle or stop yourself at home, and when you should be concerned enough to go to an emergency room to be seen right away. So a nosebleed most people think of as something when you lose not that much blood and you can get it stopped by putting some tissues there or pinching it. But there are nosebleeds whereby a person can lose a significant amount of blood, and it certainly needs medical attention, a medical intervention, to get it under control. If you are at home and you are having a nosebleed, firstly, if it was caused by trauma, where there is a blow to the face and is a significant blow to the face, you should definitely be seen in an emergency department so that we can assess whether or not there’s been a fracture or whether or not there is a significant tear of the lining of the inside of the nose that needs to be attended to. Secondly, patients that are on blood thinners, such as Eliquis and warfarin or Coumadin, aspirin, Plavix. These are medicines that if you recognize these names and you are having a severe nosebleed, you should go to the hospital to be seen. Because significant blood loss can lead to further complications. And getting to stem the flow of blood earlier on in this sequence is going to be beneficial to you. So if you bleed for more than 10 minutes, if the blood flow is high flow, if it’s not trickling, but it’s really pouring out, these are instances which you should go to an emergency room to be evaluated for.
