Outcomes of endoscopic sinus surgery for sinusitis-induced intracranial abscess in patients undergoing neurosurgery.

Objective: Although sinusitis-induced intracranial complications rarely occur in the current era of antibiotics, they can induce neurological symptoms or death. The authors of this study investigated the association between endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and outcomes in patients who had undergone neurosurgical procedures for sinusitis-induced intracranial abscess.

Methods: The authors obtained data on patients with sinusitis-induced intracranial abscess from the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination inpatient data for the period from 2010 to 2017. They excluded patients with fungal sinusitis, orbital complications, immunodeficiency, and malignant disease. They also excluded patients who had received antifungal agents, chemotherapy, immunosuppressants, and antidiabetic drugs. Eligible patients were divided into those with and those without neurosurgical procedures. Propensity score-adjusted regression analyses were performed to examine the association between ESS within the same hospitalization and outcomes (mortality, blood transfusion, readmission, revision neurosurgery, and length of stay).

Results: Of the 552 potentially eligible patients, 255 were treated with neurosurgical procedures, including 104 who underwent ESS within the same hospitalization and 151 who did not. ESS was not significantly associated with mortality (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.05-5.81, p = 0.61), blood transfusion (OR 1.95, 95% CI 0.84-4.51, p = 0.12), readmission (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.34-2.16, p = 0.75), revision neurosurgery (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.24-1.74, p = 0.39), or length of stay (percent difference -10.8%, 95% CI -24.4% to 5.1%, p = 0.18).

Conclusions: The present study suggests that ESS may not have significant benefits with respect to reducing mortality, blood transfusion, readmission, revision neurosurgery, or length of stay.