Subjective Outcomes Assessment in Chronic Rhinosinusitis

The treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) requires an increasing use of medical and economic resources. Therefore, the assessment of objective and subjective outcome of different treatment strategies is of considerable interest. Validated quality of life (QOL) instruments are one important means to assess subjective outcome of the patients. Frequently used generic instruments are the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) for prospective evaluations and the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) for retrospective evaluations. Normative data and numerous comparative data sets collected from various diseases are available for the SF-36. Disease-specific QOL instruments for CRS have been developed over the last 15 years. In this review 11 disease-specific instruments are discussed. Only four of these instruments cover all four main symptoms of CRS and are completely validated as well. Most frequently used instruments (Sino-Nasal Outcome Test, SNOT-20; Chronic Sinusitis Survey, CSS) do not query all the main symptoms of CRS.