Short-term quality of life outcomes following pediatric septoplasty

Abstract

Conclusions: Pediatric septoplasty may be associated with short-term symptomatic benefit. This benefit may be greater in female patients and equally achievable in young patients and using less invasive surgical approaches.

Objective: To determine the short-term effect of pediatric septoplasty, which is not routinely performed, on sinus and nasal-specific quality-of-life.

Methods: This study is a retrospective case series of 28 pediatric patients that underwent septoplasty. Pre- and post-septoplasty SN-5 overall (mean of all five items, range = 1–7) and visual analog scale (VAS; range = 0–10) scores were obtained and compared using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Comparisons of pre- to post-septoplasty changes by sex (female vs male), age (<13 vs ≥13 years), and surgical approach (open vs closed) were performed using a Mann–Whitney U-test. Median and interquartile range are reported.

Results: Overall and VAS scores significantly improved from pre- to post-septoplasty (3.5 [2.8, 4.3] to 2.0 [1.4, 2.8], p < .001; 5.0 [4.0, 6.3] to 8.0 [8.0, 10.0], p < .001). Females reported significantly greater overall and VAS score improvements compared to males (−1.8 [−2.6, −1.6] compared to −1.0 [−1.6, −0.2], p = .01; 5.0 [4.0, 5.0] compared to 3.0 [1.5, 4.0], p = .007). Comparisons of changes by age and surgical approach were not significantly different.

Keywords:

• SN-5
• visual analog scale
• quality-of-life
• pediatric
• septoplasty

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Rose Jones-Goodrich, our research coordinator, for her assistance with administration for this study. Dr Lee has received support through the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders T32 DC000018 Research Training Grant. This paper was presented as a Podium Presentation at the 2015 Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting, in San Diego, California.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.