[Quality of life after functional aesthetic septorhinoplasty in primary surgery vs. revision surgery-a monocentric...

Subjective assessments of quality of life (QOL) as an important aspect of outcome research have gained in importance over the past few decades. The number of prospective studies on postoperative QOL in septorhinoplasty using disease-specific instruments is sparse. The aim was to assess and compare patient QOL after primary and revision septorhinoplasty performed by a single surgeon in an ENT center.

All patients completed two disease-specific QOL instruments preoperatively and at least 1 year postoperatively: the Rhinoplasty Outcome Evaluation (ROE) and the Nasal Obstruction Symptoms Evaluation (NOSE) scores. General demographic and clinical information (age, gender, medical and surgical history) were collected from all patients. All operations were performed by a single surgeon (F. R.).

A total of 237 patients were included in the study, 208 (87.8%) female and 29 (12.2%) male. The average age was 30.3 ± 8.9 years. The average observation period was 19.3 ± 7.4 months. Using the measurement tool NOSE there was a significant improvement in obstruction in the overall collective (preoperative 49.8 ± 26.2, postoperative 19.1 ± 21.3; p < 0.001) with no significant difference in primary versus revision surgery. The ROE score showed a significant improvement and both collectives (primary and secondary surgery) showed a significant improvement after the intervention. The patients with a primary intervention had a significantly higher postoperative QOL (p < 0.001).

The disease-specific QOL showed a significant increase after primary septorhinoplasty as well as after revision surgery. The NOSE score increased significantly in both intervention groups postoperatively.