Comparison between endonasal endoscopic polyp size scores and quality of life outcome after optimal medical treatment.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate whether changes in endoscopy score correlate with changes in quality of life (QOL) in nasal polyposis (NP) patients after optimal medical therapy.

METHODOLOGY

An interventional clinical trial study involving fifty five patients with grade I and II NP was conducted. Patients were initially treated with a single dose oral prednisolone 25 mg for 2 weeks, Macrolide 250 mg daily for the first 3 months and long-term intranasal steroids. All patients were followed up and evaluated subjectively by Rhinosinusitis Disability Index question- naire and objectively by endonasal endoscopy between December 2011 to October 2013.

RESULTS

At baseline, patients showed significantly bad QOL scores on all domains. At 3 months, a significant improvement in all impaired QOL domains and reduction of the nasal polyp size were demonstrated compared to baseline. At 6 and 12 months, no significant improvement between QOL scores and nasal polyp size was observed.

CONCLUSION

Optimal medical treatments improve both the QOL and nasal polyp size in grade I and II NP patients. However, the changes in endoscopy scores explain a part of the improvement in QOL outcomes as the latter are multidimensional constructs.