Minimally invasive surgery under local anaesthesia for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: Our experience in older adults

Objective This paper aims to report our experience with a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, performed in a day-surgery setting under local anaesthesia.Methods A retrospective study of 30 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps was conducted. Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 22 and modified Lund-Kennedy scores were collected. Intra- and post-operative pain was evaluated using a 10-point visual analogue scale.Results The mean Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 22 score decreased from 41.8 ± 15.8 pre-operatively to 13.3 ± 9.5 post-operatively (p < 0.001). Accordingly, the mean endoscopic score decreased from 6.8 ± 1.8 to 0.2 ± 0.7 (p < 0.001). The mean intra-operative pain score was 2.9 ± 3.2, and 29 patients (96.7 per cent) reported no pain in the post-operative period (visual analogue scale score = 0).Conclusion Our study confirms that minimally invasive surgery represents a safe, repeatable procedure that results in remarkable subjective and objective improvement, without intra- and post-operative pain or discomfort.