Burn Pit Exposure Is Associated With Increased Sinonasal Disease.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Otolaryngology
• Military Medicine

Background:

• Concerns exist regarding the long-term health effects of military deployment, particularly exposure to open burn pits.
• Sinus disease is a common condition affecting quality of life and healthcare utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between self-reported burn pit exposure and the prevalence of subjective and objective sinus disease.
• To compare sinonasal outcomes in patients with and without burn pit exposure.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study was conducted with 186 adult patients at a US Military rhinology clinic.
• Data collected included demographics, medical history, sinonasal quality-of-life (Sinonasal Outcome Test-22), and nasal endoscopy (Lund-Kennedy score).
• Patients were categorized into three cohorts based on self-reported burn pit exposure.

Main Results:

• Patients with burn pit exposure reported significantly worse quality of life (Sinonasal Outcome Test-22 scores of 49.9) compared to those without exposure (31.8) or never deployed (31.5).
• Nasal endoscopy revealed more severe sinus disease in the burn pit exposure group (Lund-Kennedy score of 3.3) versus other groups (1.8 and 1.7).

Conclusions:

• Self-reported burn pit exposure is associated with increased subjective sinus disease.
• Deployment-related burn pit exposure correlates with objective findings of more severe sinus disease.