Abstract

Quality of life measures in patients on rhinosinusitis trials

Author(s): Eduardo Lehrer-Coriat, Franklin Marino-Sanchez, Isam Alobid, Joaquim Mullol

Although rhinosinusitis is not a life-threatening condition, it impairs daily functioning and quality of life (QoL). The evaluation of rhinosinusitis patients must include a complete sinonasal history and nasal exploration, and in addition may include CT scan and the quantification of QoL. The burden of rhinosinusitis can be assessed and compared with controls using the available generic questionnaires. Specific questionnaires offer more sensitivity than generics in terms of details on distinct diseases such as rhinosinusitis when studying a selected population. This article is intended to provide a review of the available measurement instruments on QoL that have been used in clinical trials related to rhinosinusitis, both acute and chronic. The indexed English literature up to 2012 from PUBMED and EMBASE was reviewd. The studies suggest that the available instruments to quantify the impact of acute and chronic rhinosinusitis demonstrate impairment on QoL and the available treatments lead to a similar improvement.