Incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of endoscopic sinus surgery after endoscopic skull-base surgery

Incidence of Sinus Inflammation After Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery in the Pediatric Population

BACKGROUND

The extended endonasal approach has been utilized in the resection of anterior skull base lesions in the pediatric population. There are unique challenges to these patients in the post-operative setting, including patient compliance with medical therapy and post-operative debridements, and a smaller nasal airway that may increase propensity toward scarring. Our objective for this study is to evaluate the incidence of post-operative radiographic inflammation in this patient population using the Lund-Mackay (LM) score.

METHODS

A single-center, retrospective review of pediatric patients undergoing endoscopic approach to the skull base between 2009 and 2021 was performed. Demographic and clinicopathologic data and pre- and post-operative imaging were analyzed. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey multiple pairwise comparisons statistical tests were used to compare mean LM scores between groups.

RESULTS

Seventy-two patients (52 males, 20 females) were identified with a median follow-up of 27 months. All patients underwent an extended endonasal approach for resection of skull base lesions. The mean LM scores were compared between pre-operative MRI, first post-operative MRI > 30 days after surgery, and most recent post-operative MRI. One-way ANOVA was performed with significant differences noted between the groups (p < 0.001). Tukey multiple pairwise comparisons test was then performed and noted significant differences between the pre-operative and first post-operative LM (p < 0.0001) and the first post-operative and most recent LM (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference noted between the pre-operative LM score and most recent LM score (p = 0.14).

CONCLUSION

Despite concerns regarding possible subsequent development of chronic rhinosinusitis following endoscopic skull base surgery in pediatric patients, the current study suggests that transient radiographic evidence of sinus inflammation can be seen up to six months postoperatively, which appears to resolve by approximately two years after surgery.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

4 Laryngoscope, 2022.

Quality of life in sinonasal tumors: an up-to-date review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

To assess the impact of benign and malignant sinonasal tumors and their management on patients' Quality of Life (QOL) as measured by Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS).

RECENT FINDINGS

Although there is a growing consensus that endoscopic surgical management in carefully selected patients with sinonasal tumors is at least as (and probably more) effective than open resection, it is not clear to what extent this translates to better QOL outcomes. Earlier studies reported better outcomes in the emotional and physical function domains after endoscopic resection, and it seems that postsurgical morbidity is less in endoscopic compared to open approaches. QoL after endoscopic surgery for sinonasal and anterior skull base tumors seems to improve within several months of surgery in both benign and malignant tumor groups. However, patients with benign sinonasal tumors have a higher QOL pre and post operatively compared to those with malignancy mainly due to absence of (neo) - adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Factors that seem to be associated with worse QoL include > 60 years, less than 6 months from surgery, prior and adjuvant chemo and radiotherapy, smoking history, advanced staging and malignancy.

SUMMARY

There is not a universally accepted PROM for use in patients with sinonasal benign and malignant tumors: A variety of different PROMs have been used with different degrees of effectiveness. Most likely a combination of disease-specific (such as SNOT 22 and anterior skull base questionnaire) and generic (such as Short Form health survey questionnaire (SF-36) and Karnofsky Performance Status) health outcome measures provide the most insight into QOL of patients with sinonasal tumors. QOL of these patients appears to undergo a bimodal impact with patients experiencing an initial dip in QOL after surgical treatment followed by a slow improvement over time. However, while patients with benign tumors' return to their status quo ante QOL, this is not the case for patients with malignant tumors who stabilize at a lower than initially QOL. To a large extent this seems to be the effect of (neo) adjuvant chemo radiotherapy.