Cost-effectiveness of Corticosteroid Nasal Spray vs Surgical Therapy in Patients With Severe to Extreme Anatomical Nasal Obstruction.

Importance: Health insurance companies commonly require a trial of corticosteroid nasal spray prior to authorizing nasal surgery, even in patients with severe to extreme anatomical nasal obstruction, despite lack of data supporting such medical therapy.

Objectives: To provide a model for the comparative analysis of medical vs surgical treatment for nasal obstruction to help maximize health care benefit per dollar spent and to explore the cost-effectiveness of corticosteroid nasal spray in patients with severe to extreme nasal airway obstruction on Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scores.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A cost-efficiency frontier economic evaluation was performed.