Factors Affecting the Improvement of Olfactory Disturbance in Patients Undergoing Endoscopic Sinus Surgery for Chronic Sinusitis

Chang, Chol; Hong, Seok Chan

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The most common cause of olfactory dysfunction is chronic rhinosinusitis, and endoscopic sinus surgery has been reported to yield beneficial outcome for the olfactory function. The purpose of this study was to study the benefits of endoscopic sinus surgery and investigate the influence of prognostic variables on the olfactory function in chronic rhinosinusitis patients. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We enrolled 52 patients who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis with olfactory dysfunction from July 2000 through April 2003 at Bundang CHA General Hospital, College of Medicine, Pochon CHA University. Patients were classified into 3 groups (well-healing, persistent olfactory disturbance and worse groups). We statistically compared various prognostic variables, such as CT scores, age, gender, allergy, duration of disease. and previous nasal surgery history among the 3 groups. KVSS test was used (Korean Version of Sniffin' Sticks test) for the evaluation of olfactory function. RESULTS: Of the prognostic variables examined, CT scores, gender, allergy, and duration of disease had no influence on the prognosis of olfactory improvement. However, old age and previous nasal surgery were found to have statistically significance on the worse prognosis. The olfactory function improved in 88% of the patients following the endoscopic sinus surgery. CONCLUSION: We concluded that olfactory function of many patients with conductive disorder improved after endoscopic sinus surgery. Gender, allergy, duration of disease had no singnificant influence on the prognosis of olfaction. The severity of sinusitis and the extent of polyps were not consistent with the degree of olfactory repairment