The development of optic neuropathy after chronic rhinosinusitis: A population-based cohort study

Background: To evaluate the risk of developing optic neuropathy (ON) in patient with both non-surgery and surgery-indicated chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) via the national health insurance research database in Taiwan. Methodology/Principal findings: 44,176 Patients with a diagnostic code of CRS was selected, which included 6,678 received functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) regarded as the surgery-indicated CRS. Each individual in the study group was matched to two non-CRS patients by age and gender. The outcome was set as the occurrence of ON according to the diagnostic codes occurred after the index date. Poisson regression was used to calculate the adjusted relative risk (aRR) and conditional Cox proportional model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR). There were 131 and 144 events of ON occurred in the study group and the control group respectively during the follow-up period. The whole study group, whether received FESS or not, demonstrated both significant aRR and aHR compared to the control group after adjusting demographic data, prominent ocular diseases, and systemic co-morbidities. In addition, both the aRR and aHR were higher in CRS patient received FESS than those with CRS but without FESS management. Conclusion: The existence of CRS, especially the surgery-indicated CRS is a significant risk factor for the following ON using multivariable analysis.