Correlations between endoscopy score and quality of life changes after sinus surgery.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether change in endoscopy score correlates with change in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) following endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis.

DESIGN

Prospective open cohort.

SETTING

Tertiary rhinology clinic.

PATIENTS

One hundred two adult patients with and without nasal polyposis who elected to undergo endoscopic sinus surgery and were followed up for 12 +/- 2 months postoperatively.

INTERVENTION

Patient characteristics and Lund-Mackay computed tomography scores were recorded preoperatively. Lund-Kennedy endoscopy scores and 2 HRQOL surveys, the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index and Chronic Sinusitis Survey, were examined before and after surgery.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Postoperative changes in endoscopy score and HRQOL were examined using bivariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS

Statistically significant improvements were found in endoscopy score (P < .001) and for all total and subscale HRQOL measures (P < .001). After controlling for baseline status and comorbid factors, improvement in endoscopy score significantly correlated with 12-month improvement on the total Rhinosinusitis Disability Index (P = .01), the physical (P = .01) and functional (P = .02) subscales of the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index, and the symptom subscale of the Chronic Sinusitis Survey (P = .003) but could explain only 25.5% to 36.6% of the linear variation for these HRQOL improvements.

CONCLUSIONS

For most patients, endoscopy scores and disease-specific HRQOL significantly improve after endoscopic sinus surgery. Changes in endoscopy scores explain a portion of the improvement in HRQOL. For patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, improvements in disease-specific HRQOL outcomes are complex, multidimensional constructs that cannot be entirely explained by surgical changes measured by endoscopic examination. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00799097.