Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery Versus Balloon Sinuplasty with Ethmoidectomy: A 2-year Analysis in Pediatric Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Abstract

To evaluate the 2-year post-operative outcomes of pediatric patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) treated with balloon catheter sinuplasty (BCS) and ethmoidectomy compared to functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Two-group, retrospective cohort study of 28 children with CRS was performed. Of these 28 participants, 15 were treated with traditional FESS (53.6 %) and 13 (46.4 %) underwent traditional ethmoidectomy with balloon sinuplasty. Pre-operative and 2-year postoperative total symptom scores and medications were compared. To examine the potential long-term differences in surgical outcomes and surgical procedure on symptom outcome, one-tailed Chi square analyses were employed. The mean age of the children examined was 9.3 (SD = SD = 4.1; range 3–18) and 61.9 % were male. Pre-operative symptomatology, medication and Lund Mackay scores were evaluated for both groups and no significant differences were identified. Overall, 73.3 % of children that underwent traditional FESS and 76.9 % of those who had BCS with ethmoidectomy reported significant long-term improvement in at least one of their pre-operative sinus complaints. Our data suggests that both BCS with ethmoidectomy and traditional FESS are effective treatment options for uncomplicated CRS and result in long-term alleviation of core sinus complaints, as well as decreased sinus related medication use. Larger prospective studies are needed to further evaluate these procedures.