Comprehensive quality of life outcomes for pediatric patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery

Background: Limited quality of life data exist for pediatric chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). Further exploration of the following areas will enhance understanding and support clinical decision-making: baseline and post-ESS general and disease-specific quality of life, parent vs. child report, and correlation of nasal endoscopy to sinus CT scores. Methodology: A prospective cohort study evaluated CRS patients age 5-18 undergoing ESS. Surveys were completed at two timepoints: (1) pre-ESS and (2) 30-90 days post-ESS, with parents completing general (PedsQLTM) and CRS-specific (SNOT-16 and SN-5) quality of life surveys and children completing PedsQLTM and SNOT-16 surveys. Preoperative Lund-Kennedy nasal endoscopy and Lund-Mackay sinus CT scores were calculated. Where appropriate, outcomes were stratified by cystic fibrosis status. Results: Impaired preoperative general quality of life was evidenced by parent proxy-report of PedsQLTM scores in 10 cystic fibrosis and 11 non-CF patients. ESS was associated with decreased sinus symptoms at 1-3 months postoperatively with SN-5 change scores of -1.85 and -2.2, in CF and non-CF patients, respectively. Parents reported worse CRS symptoms via higher preoperative SNOT-16 scores than their children did. Nasal endoscopy and sinus CT scores correlated with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.51. Scores not reaching statistical significance included CF-related CRS SNOT-16 change scores and PedsQLTM general quality of life change scores. Conclusion: In pediatric patients with CRS electing ESS, general quality of life is impaired preoperatively and sinus symptoms improve significantly 1-3 months after sinus surgery. Parents report statistically worse CRS symptom scores than their children do. Nasal endoscopy scores in this cohort correlated with sinus CT scores.