Guidelines recommend antibiotics, intranasal corticosteroid sprays, and saline rinses for individual episodes of acute rhinosinusitis, with endoscopic sinus surgery as a possible treatment if the condition recurs multiple times a year.Endoscopic sinus surgery improved quality of life related to recurrent acute rhinosinusitis compared with conservative medical therapy alone in a small randomized trial.The trial was limited by premature termination, resulting in imprecise effect sizes.
For patients with recurrent acute rhinosinusitis, endoscopic sinus surgery improved quality of life related to the condition, whereas conservative medical treatment alone did little, a small randomized trial showed.
Improvement in the mean rhinosinusitis-related quality-of-life score on the SinoNasal Outcome Test 22 (SNOT-22, range 0-110, with higher scores being worse) from baseline to 6 months was 22.41 points greater after surgery and medical treatment versus medical treatment only (−21.74 vs +0.24 points), exceeding the minimal clinically important difference of 9 points.
Surgery more than doubled the likelihood of achieving that 9-point reduction (78% vs 33%), reported Heidi Kaski, MD, of Oulu University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.
