Are too many septal deviations operated on? A retrospective patient's satisfaction questionnaire with 11 years follow-up

Background: Not much is known about long-term satisfaction of septoplasty. The goal of this study was to assess disease specific quality of life outcomes as well as satisfaction at more than 10 years follow-up after septoplasty. Methods: The study was conducted as a retrospective questionnaire study (based on the NOSE scale) in which a questionnaire was sent to every patient and followed up by a telephone interview conducted in a tertiary otorhinolaryngologic clinic. Results: Out of 369 patients who underwent septoplasty, 238 accepted to participate of which 222 were eligible. We found a significant reduction in NOSE score from 56.9 before surgery to 31.9 at follow-up. 68.0% experienced improved nasal breathing and 55.9% were satisfied with the overall outcome. Predictive analysis showed that only severity of symptoms before surgery was predictive of all final outcome parameters. Conclusions: Long-term outcome of septoplasty appears to be in line with shorter follow-up. Surprisingly a sizable difference was noted between rate of satisfaction and improvement in nasal breathing. It is important that the surgeon and patient have the same expectations to septoplasty as to avoid any inappropriate disappointment, which is more likely to occur if symptoms are not severe.