Life-threatening traumatic epistaxis due to massive bleeding into the maxillary sinus

A 77-year-old woman with no medical history fell, and her face was strongly impacted on the ground. On arrival at our hospital, her initial vital signs were stable. She underwent an endoscopy to stop the bleeding. However, identification of the origin of the bleeding failed, and her injury resulted in hemorrhagic shock during the procedure. Head to face contrast computed tomography showed extravasation of contrast media into the maxillary sinus. Transcatheter arterial embolization was performed for the ruptured infraorbital artery branching from the maxillary artery. She recovered from the “shock” state after transcatheter arterial embolization and was admitted to the intensive care unit. There were no complications associated with transcatheter arterial embolization during hospitalization. For this case, early recognition of an active hemorrhage was challenging because the hemorrhage was pooled in the sinuses. Although epistaxis is sometimes fatal, transcatheter arterial embolization can be the first choice for the treatment of life-threatening epistaxis, owing to its safety and effectiveness.