10% of the danish population suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis – a condition with inflammation in the nose and sinuses resulting in chronic runny and stuffy nose, reduced nasal breathing, reduced sense of smell and sometimes pain from the sinuses. Some patients are easily treated with nasal spray and other patients have severe uncontrolled symptoms despite long treatment and several surgeries. Today we have no way of predicting which category our patients are going to fall into when we first diagnose them with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS).
Our study examines the progression of disease from the point of diagnosis until a 2-year follow-up. By determining which patient progress in different ways we will evaluate potential samples and measurements taken from the point of diagnosis for their usability in predicting the course of disease. Another aspect of the chronicity of a disease is the individual experiences living with the condition. To illustrate this aspect the study also includes a phenomenologic analysis of the lived experience with CRS based on semi-structured interviews sampled from the cohort.
Patients with CRS are commonly overlooked as “just a chronic common cold”, but the disease impacts the quality of life as much as chronic pain conditions. It is a crippling condition for many patients and we seek to improve the initial diagnostic handling to achieve improved long term effects on symptom management.
Main Supervisor:
, Clinical Professor
Co-Supervisors:
, Clinical Lector
, Professor
, Professor
Lars Gosvig, ENT specialist
