Clinical outcomes after endoscopic sinus surgery

Purpose of review Chronic rhinosinusitis continues to present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for clinicians. Recently, attention has been focused on reliable and valid measures of outcomes for many sinonasal diseases. As a significant fraction of patients with chronic rhinosinustis will come to endoscopic sinus surgery, there has been a dedicated focus on determining objective clinical outcomes after medical treatment for CRS. This has been aided by validated instruments for measuring both symptom outcomes and quality of life after endoscopic sinus surgery. Recent findings Recent studies have demonstrated that endoscopic sinus surgery provides statistically and clinically significant improvements in most sinonasal symptoms. These benefits are maintained more than 1 year after surgery. In addition the significant adverse effects of chronic rhinosinusitis on quality of life can be reversed with appropriate endoscopic sinus surgery. Certain sub-populations do not fare as well with endoscopic sinus surgery, however; adjunctive medical management is required to maintain symptomatic and quality-of-life improvements for patients with nasal polyposis. Unfortunately, paranasal sinus computed tomography scan findings do not predict symptomatic or quality-of-life improvements after endoscopic sinus surgery. Summary With reliable objective evidence of the health benefits of endoscopic sinus surgery, patients should be considered for such surgery after failure of medical management. Further work is required to characterize outcomes for sub-populations, and to stage and select patients who will derive appropriate benefit from endoscopic sinus surgery.