Association between ABO Blood Group and Epistaxis among Syrian Population

Abstract

Background: Epistaxis is one of the most common otorhinolaryngologic emergencies in ear, nose,
and throat clinics. Blood grouping is routinely done in patients with epistaxis.
Objectives: To determine the association between ABO blood type and epistaxis.
Methods: This retrospective study involved 260 patients with idiopathic epistaxis. Patients with
risk factors for bleeding, including anticoagulant use, thrombocytopenia, hypertension, liver
diseases, elevated bleeding time, low coagulation factor levels, or any benign/malignant tumor,
were excluded from the study. Thus, only patients with idiopathic epistaxis were included in this
study.
Results: The distributions of blood groups in patients with idiopathic epistaxis were
(AB < B<A<O), with highly trending with male gender. Also, more frequent in age category 6 – 12
y, 13 – 20 y, 1 – 5 y, 46 – 70 y, 21 – 45 y respectively, with no pervious history of nasal trauma
(71.92%). Most of patients were no correlation with nasal disorders or deformity (73.84 %), also
vast majority of them need no intervention for epistaxis i.e., conservative treatment (81.15 %).
Conclusions: Our study indicates that in the Syrian population, the O blood type is over-represented
in patients with idiopathic epistaxis versus the general population. We conclude that blood type O
is a risk factor for idiopathic epistaxis in the Syrian population.