Abstract:ObjectiveTo realize the quality of life related to nasal symptoms in patients undergoing endoscopic surgery for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.MethodsClinical data of 44 patients who underwent endoscopic surgery for nasopharyngeal lesions and cooperated with our clinical survey were analyzed retrospectively. The followup patients included 31 cases of nasopharyngeal malignant tumors and 13 of skull base osteoradionecrosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Among all the 44 patients, 12 cases (27.3%) had no history of radiotherapy, 27 (61.4%) received a course of radiotherapy, and 5 (11.4%) suffered two courses of radiotherapy. Sinonasal outcome test22 (SNOT22) and empty nose syndrome 6 item questionnaires (ENS6Q) were used to evaluate their nasal symptoms and quality of life. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS 24.0 software.ResultsThe results of SNOT22 showed that hyposmia was the most serious syndrome with the highest score for sleeprelated symptoms. There were 9 patients (20.5%) with ENS6Q score higher than 10.5. The symptom of nasal crusting was the most obvious. KruskalWallis test showed that the SNOT22 score was related to the history of radiotherapy (P<0.05), while the ENS6Q score was not related to the history of radiotherapy.ConclusionOnly a small part of patients undergoing endoscopic skull base surgery are likely to develop empty nose syndrome（ENS），although the nasal cavity structures are damaged to varying degrees. At the same time, patients undergoing endoscopic surgery for nasopharyngeal carcinoma have different degrees of nasal symptoms and sleep disorders. Patients who had received radiotherapy have worse quality of life than those without radiotherapy.
