title: [Development of a grading scale for the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-20 German Adapted Version (SNOT-20 GAV)].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life measurements with the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-20 German Adapted Version (SNOT-20 GAV) in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients require normative values measured in a comparison group taken from the normal population. These will make it possible to reach conclusions on correlations between scores and severity of symptoms and also on how close such patients' scores can get to those scores recorded in healthy subjects after surgical treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  We collected SNOT-20 GAV data and data on the presence of CRS from 778 subjects via a web-based survey of employees of the University Hospital in Heidelberg. For comparison we used data collected before surgery and at 3 months and 1 year after surgery from 163 CRS patients who had undergone endonasal sinus surgery (ESS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Gender and age had no clinically significant impact on the SNOT-20 GAV scores. We defined an assessment scale with four classes of symptom intensity. Surgically treated patients with CRS showed a persisting small disadvantage in the scales of the SNOT-20 GAV compared with the reference subgroup without CRS. When surgically treated CRS patients were compared with the entire reference group these disadvantages were only obvious in the Primary Nasal Symptoms (PNS) scale and not in the other scales measuring quality of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with CRS benefit from ESS and subsequently reach scores similar to those recorded in the reference group. The newly developed four-level assessment scale is easy to use and gives the attending physician additional information about the severity of the patients' illness and its effects on their subjective wellbeing.
authors.affiliation: Universitäts-HNO-Klinik, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120 Heidelberg. ingo.baumann@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Plinkert
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: De Maddalena
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires