OLFACTION AFTER ENDOSCOPIC ENDONASAL ETHMOIDECTOMY

A detailed preoperative and postoperative examination of the olfactory function of 111 patients with chronic polypoid ethmoiditis was carried out. Eighty-seven patients required a complete endoscopic endonasal sphenoethmoidectomy. In 24 patients an endoscopic partial resection of the ethmoidal cell system was performed. Before surgery a normosmia was ascertained in 39 patients (35%). Thirty-four patients (31%) were hyposmic, and 38 patients (34%) suffered from anosmia. In the postoperative olfactory function test 89 patients (80%) had a normal sense of smell; 13 patients (12%) showed hyposmia, and nine patients (8%) experienced anosmia. Seventy-eight percent of the patients with impaired olfactory function had marked improvement after the operation. Patients who had previously undergone a polypectomy had a less favorable prognosis. None of the preoperatively normosmic patients became hyposmic or even anosmic after endoscopic sinus surgery. The sense of smell of only two of the 34 patients with preexisting hyposmia worsened after surgery. The postoperative size of the middle nasal turbinate did not correlate with the ability to smell. More important was the accessibility of the olfactory cleft.