Cocaine for Nosebleeds

Hey guys! This is taingera again and today’s topic is going to be “Cocaine for Nosebleed.” As usual, before I go into this topic, I have to throw out a disclaimer that I am not your medical doctor and these are just my opinions from my research. You should only take this blog content for educational purposes only. Alright, let’s get on with it.

When you guys think of cocaine and it’s use. What do you guys think of? Do you automatically think of Scarface dipping his nose in a pile of cocaine?

Don’t worry, I do too. But did you know that cocaine has uses in the medical community as well? 4% cocaine is a schedule II drug that is sometimes used for epistaxis (i.e. nosebleeds). It has local anesthetic and constrictive properties, which causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the nose to stop the bleeding. The reason why it is a scheduled II narcotic is because of the high potential for abuse.

Initially, when a patient presents with epistaxis, the medical professional ask the patient to perform certain types of tamponade maneuvers to plug the nose. The patient bends at the waist and pinches his nose.

Where cocaine 4% comes into play is that it is prepared with a mixture of tetracaine or lidocaine with epinephrine on cotton pledgets to put into the nose. This should control the bleeding where the medical professional can visualize the mucosa and cauterize with silver nitrate and pack the nasal cavity with tampons.

Thank you for reading this blog and until next time...