Trends in chronic rhinosinusitis research in the past three decades.

Background: The objective of this work was to identify trends in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS)-related publications for the past 3 decades.

Methods: Literature review was conducted using multiple terms, including sinusitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, chronic sinus disease, nasal polyposis, ethmoid sinusitis, frontal sinusitis, and maxillary sinusitis. Abstracts were divided into 3 decades: 1983 through 1992, 1993 through 2002, and 2003 through 2012. For each decade, we compared the total number of publications and journals, study design, use of validated outcome measures, quality of evidence, number of authors, country of origin, and clinical vs basic science.

Results: A total of 3406 abstracts were identified. There was a statistically significant increase in the number of publications with a 637% increase from 1983 through 1992 to 2003 through 2012 (p < 0.05). Likewise, the number of journals with CRS-related publications significantly increased during the study period (117 to 350; p < 0.05). Prospective studies increased (15.30% to 28.90%, p < 0.05) and retrospective studies decreased (33.00% to 17.36%, p < 0.05). Cohort studies were the most common type of design study (18.70% to 32.46%). In studies reporting outcome measures, the use of validated measures significantly increased over time (2.56% to 49.70%, p < 0.05). Although, the quality of evidence for most clinical publications for all 3 decades were grade C, the number and percentage of grade A and grade B publications increased significantly over time (0.99% to 7.23%, p < 0.05; 6.9% to 10.44%, p < 0.05; respectively).

Conclusion: CRS-related publication quantity and quality have increased over the last 3 decades.