Treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis using balloon sinuplasty. A quality of life analysis

Balloon sinuplasty (functional endoscopic dilation surgery, FEDS) has become established as a safe therapeutic procedure for treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis. Our goal was to assess the effect on quality of life (QoL) using validated tools and identify predictive factors. A consecutive cohort of 14 patients was evaluated using the disease-specific QoL questionnaire Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 20 (SNOT-20). The measured postoperative changes were then correlated to the results of preoperative CT scan analyses performed according to Lund. Both the overall SNOT-20 scores and those corresponding to subsections regarding primary nasal symptoms (PNS) and secondary rhinogenic symptoms (SRS) showed a highly significant improvement (p < 0.01). Changes in PNS but not in SRS correlated with the CT scan analyses (p < 0.05). Eighty five percent of patients said that they would choose to undergo FEDS again. FEDS is an effective technique that can alleviate symptoms and improve QoL. Patient selection should not be based on CT data alone but a CT scan can be used to determine whether or not the FEDS technique is applicable to the individual patient.