11:40: Efficacy of Paranasal Sinus Irrigation in Chronic Sinusitis

Abstract

of follow-up, surgical success, and method used to assess surgical outcome were collected. RESULTS: The study designs were retrospective case series without control (8 papers), retrospective with internal control (4 papers), and prospective case series without control (6 papers). Seventy-eight percent of the published papers provide an evidence level of 4 while the remaining 22% provide an evidence level of 3. The surgical technique was described as frontal sinusotomy (nϭ6), modified Lothrop (nϭ7), Draf types II or III (nϭ3), transseptal frontal sinusotomy (nϭ1), and frontal sinus rescue (nϭ1). The median number of subjects was 20. The median duration of follow-up was 15 months. The diagnosis of frontal sinus disease was made by CT only (nϭ4), CT and MRI (nϭ2), CT and symptoms (nϭ5), and CT and nasal endoscopy (nϭ7). Surgical success rate ranged between 77% and 100%. The surgical outcome was based on nasal endoscopy (nϭ18), CT (nϭ3), symptoms (nϭ10), and outcome measure (nϭ2). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the published papers that report on the efficacy of endoscopic approaches to treat frontal sinus disease had a small sample size, short follow-up duration, and provide a low evidence level.