Complications of Endoscopic Sinus Surgery in Geriatric Chronic Sinusitis

Lee, Jung Kyu; Park, Moo Kyun; Kim, Kyoung Min; Cho, Jae Gu; Lee, Seung Hoon; Lee, Sang Hak; Lee, Heung Man

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: With advancement in technique and the skills of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), this surgery is being performed more on elderly people than before. We compared the complication in patients undergoing ESS who were > or =65 years of age with those <65 years.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We reviewed our database of cases that had ESS between 2002 and 2005. Demographics and patient characteristics and complications encountered intraoperatively and immediately postoperatively were reviewed.
RESULTS
One hundred patients were older than 65 years of age compared with 100 patients who were 16-65 years old. The older group had a 5% revision rate compared with 3% in the younger group. Complication rates were 11% for the elderly compared with 8% for the younger group. There was a slight higher complication rate in the older group of people than in the younger group of people, but statistically no difference.
CONCLUSION
In geriatric population, complications of ESS were mainly minor such as synechiae, orbital entry, hemorrhage, periorbital ecchymosis. Complication rate was not significantly different between geriatric group and adult control group. Therefore ESS in the geriatric group is as safe as that performed in the adult control group.