Twenty-eight patients with intractable nose-bleeds were treated with either superselective embolization and/or surgery between 1983 and 1986. The follow-up time ranged between 6 months and 3 years. The results for the 2 groups were similar. The success rate for embolization was 74% and that for surgery 65%. Complications however, were more frequent after embolization, (i.e. facial nerve paralysis, soft tissue necrosis). Surgery is recommended as the treatment of choice in intractable nose-bleeds, until therapeutic embolization techniques have been further refined and the complication rate reduced.