Assessing the additional disease burden of polyps in chronic rhinosinusitis

This study was undertaken to determine the differential disease burden between chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) cases with and without nasal polyposis (NP).

A consecutive series of adult patients who met clinical and radiographic criteria for CRS was assessed with the Rhinosinusitis Symptom Inventory, nasal endoscopy, and computed tomography. Three clinical groups were examined: 1) CRS without NP, 2) CRS with primary NP (no prior surgery), and 3) CRS with recurrent NP (prior surgery). The groups were compared with respect to symptom presentation, medical resource utilization, and medication costs.

Two hundred eighty-six CRS cases without NP, 131 CRS cases with primary NP, and 45 CRS cases with recurrent NP were studied; their mean Lund scores were 8.8, 13.2, and 16.3, respectively (p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences in severity for nasal (p = 0.002), facial (p = 0.025), oropharyngeal (p = 0.017), and systemic symptoms (p = 0.042) between groups were noted, whereas total symptoms did not differ between groups (p = 0.339). Medication use and physician visits were similar between groups (p = 0.335 and p = 0.951, respectively). The aggregate yearly medication costs were significantly greater for the recurrent polyp group ($866) than for either the non-polyp group ($570; p = 0.013) or the primary polyp group ($565; p = 0.020).

Patients with non-polyp CRS and those with primary polyp CRS present with different symptom phenotypes, but exhibit similar total symptom burdens and medical resource consumption. The presence of polyps does not necessarily confer a dramatic additional disease burden in CRS.