Should patients with epistaxis and nasal packing be admitted during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A retrospective study of 885 adult cases with epistaxis.

Key point: • Being one of the commonest presenting emergencies, epistaxis can increase the pressure on the health service; in times similar to COVID-19 pandemic such pressure can be crucial and challenging to deal with. • Non-absorbable nasal packing and home discharge for selected patients can be a safe and efficient alternative treatment method with low readmission rates (5.3 %); such management can be of tremendous help when the hospital capacity is overwhelmed. • Although such protocols can be challenging to generalize, the presented protocol seems safe, easily adoptable without any significant complications.