Objective:To retrospectively study the angiographic findings of intractable bleeding in head and neck,and evaluate the safety and effectiveness of transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) for these patients. Methods: Forty-eight patients underwent TAE for intractable bleeding in head and neck from January 2009 to March 2015. Through analyzing medical history and angiographic features of these patients,effectiveness and complications were evaluated according to etiologies and angiographic findings,respectively. Results: The 48 patients included 15 cases of malignant head and heck tumor and 33 cases of benign diseases. There were 36 cases presenting with positive angiographic findings and 12 cases with negative findings. There were no significant difference on positive angiography rate between malignant diseases and benign diseases (P=0.106). Of the cases with negative findings there were 8 patients with idiopathic epistaxis and 4 patients with other diseases. The negative angiography rate of idiopathic epistaxis was higher than that of other diseases (P=0.001). Forty-six patients achieved hemostasis. Recurrence occurred in 5 patients. One patient developed visual defect after embolization. No significant differences were found in recurrence rates between malignant and benign diseases or between positive and negative angiographic findings (P=0.339,P=0.785,respectively). Conclusion: TAE is safe and useful for intractable bleeding in head and neck. Patients with idiopathic epistaxis are prone to present with negative angiographic finding. It seems effective for patients with epistaxis presenting with negative angiograms to receive prophylactic bilateral sphenopalatine artery embolization.