Effect of Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery on the Symptom Profile in Patients with Chronic Rhino-Sinusitis: Our Experience

Introduction: Chronic rhino-sinusitis defined as inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses. Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) has now become a well-established strategy for chronic rhinosinusitis refractory to medical treatment. Aims: To study surgical technique of Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery, assess success rate of surgery, assess efficacy on long term basis, assess patients experience of procedure following endoscopic sinus surgery and confirm FESS as a standard modality of treatment in patients with refractory CRS. Materials and methods: Prospective study of 33 patients of chronic rhino-sinusitis managed by FESS in period between December 2012 to December 2013. Patients underwent detailed history, ENT examination, X-ray PNS, diagnostic nasal endoscopy and CT PNS. FESS was performed and patients were followed at 1st and 3rd week, 3rd and 6 month. Results: Study concluded that 3 patients experienced relieving of symptoms by end of 3 weeks, 12 by 3 months and 28 patients by end of 6 months. On assessing post-operative symptom profile score 6 months after surgery; 89.28% patients showed improvement in nasal obstruction, 80% in anterior nasal discharge, 84.61% in headache/facial pain, 76.19% in post nasal drip, 72.22% in allergic rhinitis like symptoms and 66.66% in associated conditions like asthma. Conclusion: It was observed that overall improvement was 84.84% in our study, hence we concluded that FESS is excellent method of treatment for CRS with minimal to mild discomfort to patient and minimal complications when performed by experienced surgeon.