Impact of functional endoscopic sinus surgery on Quality of Life in Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22813319Keywords:
chronic rhinosinusitis, endoscopic sinus surgery, quality of life, SNOT-22, sinus surgery outcomesAbstract
Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) imposes a symptom and quality-of-life burden comparable to other major chronic illnesses, and functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) is offered when maximal medical therapy fails to control symptoms.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of FESS on disease-specific and general quality of life in adults with medically refractory CRS, and to identify baseline factors associated with the magnitude of improvement.
Methods: We conducted a prospective observational cohort study of adults undergoing primary FESS for CRS refractory to medical therapy, with the SNOT-22 as the primary outcome and the SNOT-20, NOSE scale, Lund-Mackay CT score, Lund-Kennedy endoscopic score, and health-state utility values as secondary measures, assessed at baseline and at six and twelve months postoperatively.
Results: Among 214 patients enrolled, mean total SNOT-22 score fell from 52.4 at baseline to 24.1 at six months and 21.7 at twelve months, with significant improvement across every subdomain; NOSE scores improved from 68.3 to 27.5, health-utility values rose from 0.72 to 0.86, and patients with greater baseline radiologic and endoscopic disease burden achieved the largest gains, with a 4.6% revision-surgery rate.
Conclusions: FESS produced substantial, sustained improvement in disease-specific and general quality of life in patients with medically refractory chronic rhinosinusitis, supporting timely surgical referral once an adequate medical trial has failed.
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