A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating Postoperative Debridement Following Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

Overview

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common sinus and nasal condition affecting more than 33 million Americans. The treatment of CRS typically begins with maximal medical therapy however, when this fails to improve patient symptoms, surgical intervention is considered. Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is a well-established treatment for refractory CRS with approximately 600,000 sinus surgeries performed annually in the United States alone. Despite the success of this intervention, up to 26% of patients experience complications following surgery, including middle meatal (MM) synechiae, edema, polyp recurrence, and middle turbinate lateralization. Currently, there is no consensus as to the postoperative care regime that is most effective at minimizing or preventing these potential complications. Therefore there is need for further study into the role of debridement, examining patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery while concurrently addressing the potential confounders of maximal medical therapies in the postoperative setting. This prospective, randomized, single-blind, controlled study design will investigate the efficacy of postoperative debridement following ESS. Patients who have undergone ESS will have one nare randomized to debridement and the other to no debridement at the first week post-operative visit. In this way, the patients will act as their own controls in order to account for inter-patient variability in disease severity. The primary outcome will assess synechiae formation attributed to ESS. Secondary outcomes will include pain (side-specific) attributed to the debridement procedure as well as comparing pre and post endoscopy scores and SNOT-22 questionnaire responses.

The significant heterogeneity present in the current literature regarding the use of postoperative debridement warrants additional studies that document postoperative protocols and use universally accepted endoscopy scores in order to consistently track patient outcomes. Further investigation into the efficacy of postoperative debridement is especially interesting with the potential benefits of further reduced synechiae formation and edema. Conversely, if objective evidence fails to demonstrate benefit of postoperative debridement, there could be significant cost and time saving for healthcare professionals in removing this therapy from the postoperative protocols. We hypothesize that postoperative debridement will have a significant effect on reducing the rates of synechiae formation. In addition, we hypothesize that this improvement in synechiae development will also be matched by improvements in postoperative endoscopic sinus scoring, and patient's overall symptoms at 1 and 3 months postoperatively. This study can clarify the efficacy of postoperative debridement and the potential benefits of further reduced synechiae formation and edema, and thus decrease the rates of complication and revision surgery. Conversely, if objective evidence fails to demonstrate benefit of postoperative debridement, there could be significant cost and time saving for healthcare professionals in removing this therapy from the postoperative protocols.