Incidence of Sinus Inflammation After Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery in the Pediatric Population

Background The extended endonasal approach has been utilized in the resection of anterior skull base lesions in the pediatric population. There are unique challenges to these patients in the post‐operative setting, including patient compliance with medical therapy and post‐operative debridements, and a smaller nasal airway that may increase propensity toward scarring. Our objective for this study is to evaluate the incidence of post‐operative radiographic inflammation in this patient population using the Lund‐Mackay (LM) score. Methods A single‐center, retrospective review of pediatric patients undergoing endoscopic approach to the skull base between 2009 and 2021 was performed. Demographic and clinicopathologic data and pre‐ and post‐operative imaging were analyzed. One‐way ANOVA followed by Tukey multiple pairwise comparisons statistical tests were used to compare mean LM scores between groups. Results Seventy‐two patients (52 males, 20 females) were identified with a median follow‐up of 27 months. All patients underwent an extended endonasal approach for resection of skull base lesions. The mean LM scores were compared between pre‐operative MRI, first post‐operative MRI > 30 days after surgery, and most recent post‐operative MRI. One‐way ANOVA was performed with significant differences noted between the groups (p