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Surgery of nasal contact point headache: assessment with quality of life. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of surgery in the treatment of referred headaches which might originate from nasal mucosal contact points.
Methods: This study involved 20 patients who had complaints of headaches for three months or longer in duration and had nasal mucosal contact points in the physical examination. The patients were examined during the preoperative and postoperative period with nasal endoscopy, topical lidocaine tests, computerized tomography of paranasal sinuses, a visual analogue scale, the short-form 36-item health survey and acoustic rhinometry. The type of surgery required was decided according to the localization of the nasal mucosal contact point.
Results: The differences in the comparison of the visual analogue scale scores between the preoperative period after the lidocaine test and the postoperative period of the eighth week and 24th week were statistically significant (p<0.013). The scores of the short-form 36-item health survey from the preoperative period, postoperative eighth week, and postoperative 24th week showed statistically significant differences in a paired comparison test (p<0.017). No statistically significant differences were observed in acoustic rhinometry results between the preoperative period, the postoperative eighth week and the postoperative 24th week. In the first-year period, the visual analogue scale and short-form 36-item health survey scores designated a statistically significant improvement (p>0.05).
Conclusions: This study points out the importance of rhinologic surgery for nasal mucosal contact points which might be the cause of referred headaches.