Quality of Life after Endoscopic Resection of Malignant Sinonasal and Skull-Base Tumors

Background: Endoscopic tumor resection has emerged as the standard for surgical treatment of sinonasal and skull-base tumors. Improvement in sinonasal quality of life following sinus surgery has been well-documented across the literature. To our knowledge, only one series has evaluated long-term quality of life in patients undergoing tumor resection. This recent cohort study surprisingly demonstrated no improvement in rhinologic quality of life following malignant tumor resection at 2 year follow-up. The objective of the present study was to evaluate quality of life in the 2 years following endoscopic malignant tumor resection.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed, including patients with malignant skull base tumors in a tertiary academic medical center. Patients undergoing endoscopic tumor resection who had completed SNOT-22 questionnaires were included in the cohort. SNOT-22 questionnaires were administered at preoperative and over a 2 year follow up period at clinic visits. Longitudinal linear mixed effects regression model was used to compare preoperative quality of life to quality of life over the two years following surgery. A student’s t-test was used to compare postoperative SNOT scores at 6 months and 2 years.

Results: 69 patients were included in the cohort. The mean preoperative SNOT score in the cohort was 35.9 (Standard Deviation, SD= 25.0). There was a significant overall reduction in SNOT scores in postoperative period (p for trend <0.001). The mean reduction in SNOT score at 6 months was 14.2 (95% Confidence Interval, CI = 8.7–19.7, p < 0.001). The mean reduction in SNOT score at 2 years was 16.4 (95% CI= 9.4–23.4, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between SNOT scores at 6 months and 2 years (p = 0.88)

Conclusions: In contrast to previously reported series, in this cohort endoscopic resection of malignant sinonasal tumors appears to be followed by an improvement in rhinologic quality of life, which is sustained over a 2-year period.

 

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No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).