Risk factors for recurrent spontaneous epistaxis.

Objective: To identify risk factors associated with spontaneous recurrent epistaxis.

Patients And Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study assessing patients in the Marshfield Clinic system diagnosed as having epistaxis between January 1, 1991, and January 1, 2011. There were 461 cases with at least 2 episodes of spontaneous epistaxis within 3 years and 912 controls with only 1 episode in the same time frame.

Examination of antibiotic dosing practices for refractory rhinosinusitis in relation to body weight.

Objective: Rhinosinusitis is a common condition that is frequently treated as an infectious disease with antibiotics. In general, antibiotic dosing in adults follows a flat scheme with no regard for body size. Wide variability in body weight raises concern whether this dosing scheme results in efficacious dosing for patients of various sizes.

PCR analysis of nasal polyps, chronic sinusitis, and hypertrophied turbinates for DNA encoding bacterial 16S rRNA.

Background: Nasal polyps are considered to result from chronic inflammation, but the initial or persisting stimulus for the inflammation is not known. A variety of bacteria and fungi have been cultured from nasal polyps, but approximately 35% have sterile cultures. Previously, Mycoplasma pneumoniae-specific DNA was detected in human nasal polyps using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, suggesting M.