Background: The excellent surgical results obtained with transnasal endoscopic approach to the anterior skull base (ASB) are universally recognized; less is known about the quality of life of patients after surgery.
Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the quality of life of patients after endoscopic transnasal surgery for the treatment of neoplasms of the ASB.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent transnasal endoscopic surgery for treatment of ASB tumors at the Tertiary Referral Center University Hospital of Verona. All patients were asked to complete the Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ), the Skull Base Inventory (SBI), and the Sino-nasal Outcome Test - 22 Items (SNOT-22) after surgical treatment. The study population was divided into subgroups; a statistical analysis of the overall results and of the different questionnaire domains was performed.
Results: 51 patients were enrolled in this study. The average score was 3.04 for ASBQ, 4.05 for SBI and 28.88 for SNOT-22. Analysis of the overall results for the ASBQ showed a lower quality of life in patients after recurrent surgery and in female patients. The SBI showed similar results in relation to recurrent surgery and radiotherapy. Similarly, the results for SNOT-22 highlighted the negative impact of recurrent surgery and radiotherapy.
Conclusion: Our results confirmed that the endoscopic transnasal approach shows excellent results not only in terms of surgical outcome, but also for the possibility of ensuring a good QoL after treatment. Recurrent surgery and radiation treatments were the most important negative prognostic factors.
Keywords: anterior skull base; anterior skull base endoscopic endonasal surgery; oncology; quality of life; questionnaire; questionnaire SNOT-22; sinonasal; skull base inventory; skull base tumors.