Long-term utility outcomes in patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery

Objectives/hypothesis: To define long-term health-state utility outcomes in patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) for refractory chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS).

Study design: Prospective, longitudinal, cohort study.

Methods: The short-form (SF)-12 survey was issued to the 168 patients who were enrolled in an initial study evaluating short-term utility outcomes following ESS. SF-12 responses were converted into SF-6D utility scores using the University of Sheffield algorithm. The primary outcome was mean overall long-term utility level following ESS. Secondary outcomes evaluated annual utility level following ESS and utility outcomes for different subgroups of patients with CRS.

Results: A total of 83 patients provided long-term health-state utility outcomes. The mean overall long-term utility level was 0.80 at a mean follow-up of 5.2 years after ESS. Compared to the baseline (0.67) and short-term follow-up (0.75) utility levels in this group, there was a significant improvement at the long-term period (P = .002). A total of 54% (45/83) of patients achieved long-term postoperative utility scores higher than the United States norm of 0.81. There was a significant improvement in utility scores for all subsequent years after ESS compared to preoperative responses (all P < .028). All subgroups of CRS received significant long-term utility improvements (all P < .001), and those undergoing revision ESS demonstrated continued improvement past the short-term postoperative period.

Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that patients with refractory CRS achieve stable mean long-term utility levels following ESS and often return to a health state comparable to US population norms.