title: Subjective headache before and after endoscopic sinus surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to show the effect of endoscopic sinus surgery on subjective headache scores in patients diagnosed with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with or without nasal polyps.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from 201 patients over a 2-year period. Headache and Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test (SNOT-20) mean scores were compared preoperatively and 2 years postoperatively on patients diagnosed with CRS with or without nasal polyps.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred one patients underwent surgical management of CRS with or without nasal polyps over a 3-year period. One hundred four patients were men and 97 were women, with a mean age of 49 (range, 18-80 years) years. Polyps were present in 78 patients with CRS. The mean subjective headache score based on a 0-10 visual analog scale improved from 4.7 preoperatively to 0.8 2 years postoperatively (p < 0.0001). The mean headache score of 123 patients without polyps was larger compared with 78 patients with polyps (5.1 versus 4.1, respectively; p < 0.05). As previously reported, the mean overall preoperative and postoperative SNOT-20 scores were 28.7 and 6.7, respectively (p < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Headache is a common symptom with CRS, present in 73.6% of our patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery for CRS with or without nasal polyps. An overall decrease in mean headache scores was noted at 2-year follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical College of Georgia, 1120 Fifteenth Street, Augusta, GA 30912, USA.
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Moretz
authors.forename: Stilianos E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kountakis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015897:Comorbidity; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009298:Nasal Polyps / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*