nose bleeds

[conniegambke]

My husband has congestive heart failure& has been having nose bleeds almost every day for the past week.he has been to emergency 2 times this week,they cauterized it but it hasnt helped,could there be a connection?Thank you Connie Gambke

[achillea]

Google something like 'nosebleeds and congestive heart failure.'  You bet there is a connection!  Nosebleeds can be one of the early signs of CHF, so basically, if you have congestive heart failure, you are at risk for nosebleeds.  

So, you have treat the CHF, which is difficult and often involves drugs or therapies that are likely to make the nosebleeds worse, things like aspirin, warfarin (anti-clot meds).  If liver function is bad, nosebleeds are a consequence, too.

In addition to all these, there are little clusters of blood vessels in two places in the nose (front and back) where everything is really close to the surface--meaning that it's tremendously easy to irritate or break these blood vessels.  Everyone has them, so docs see this all time, but in *some* patients, they are more vulnerable and exposed than others, and dryness is a terrible problem. Think of it as really, really dry skin--but on the inside of the nose.

So all you can do really is treat the nosebleeds locally, for which there are three approaches:

1.  Keep the nose environment moist.  That means using a humidifier in dry air, as well as an ointment like vaseline.  You can also use a topical antibiotic like Bactroban ointment, which doctors don't like to prescribe because you're not supposed to use antibiotics all the time.  Still, Bactroban is VERY good for treating this problem.  You can google this.

2.  Next, you can pack the nose if the bleeding won't stop.  This is messy and unpleasant, and isn't useful in the long term.  It's for emergencies.

3.  You can cauterize those nasty little blood vessels with silver nitrate on a stick or with an electric needle.  I'm one of the people who grows these little suckers like a crop, and I have to have this done about every five years, even though I'm not sick.

4.  There is surgery for extreme nosebleeds, things like tying off an artery, but no doc likes to go this route if the problem can be controlled by the means I mentioned earlier.

[bet105]

At least they did something. My husband also has heart failure and has been having nose bleeds. We took him to ER, They looked up his nose with a small light , walked out of the room, came back with a bottle of nose spray. Afrin, slammed it on the table, said use this 2 times a day, for allergies and walked out.
We wait 10 minutes for someone to come with discharge papers, no one ever did. So we walked out. The next day his medical doctor called and wanted to do a follow up (he is all about money) so we go and he orders blood teat supposely for plavix levels. Today he calls and say the liver  function has actually improved and my husband should coat the inside of his nose with vaseline at night!? I thought he was checking his plavix level! Damn Quack! I know there are veins in the nose that can rupture and bleed BUT they saw none of this upon examination. And these only happen upon be active! He has a cardiologist and will be seeing him next week, guess we will have to ask the same  him. BUT probably get response
we got for his dizzy spells two years ago.....they just have no answers!