Prognostic factors of pediatric endoscopic sinus surgery

OBJECTIVE: Pediatric endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is performed for refractory cases of rhinosinusitis that do not respond to medical management. However, few studies have been reported for the prognostic factors affecting the outcomes of pediatric ESS. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic factors affecting the outcomes of pediatric ESS. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Medical records of 97 pediatric patients who had undergone ESS from February 1995 to October 2003 were reviewed retrospectively. We classified the patients into two groups based on outcome, i.e., either good or poor, according to the postoperative endoscopic findings. Then univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to compare the following nine characteristics between the good and poor outcome groups: the presence of allergy, bronchial asthma, adenotonsillar hypertrophy, history of previous sinus surgery, presence of a smoker in the family, degree of polyposis, preoperative disease extent scored by CT scan findings, blood eosinophil count, and eosinophil infiltration in the nasal mucosa. RESULT: The overall success rate was 70% based on the objective postoperative endoscopic finding. Statistical differences were found between the good and poor groups in terms of the degree of preoperative polyposis and CT staging in univariate analysis, whilst in multivariate logistic regression analysis severe polyposis and indirect smoking predicted poor outcome after pediatric ESS. CONCLUSION: Pediatric ESS with severe polyposis, high CT rhinosinusitis staging, or indirect smoking predisposes to a poorer outcome. This needs to be taken into consideration when performing ESS for children.