The Anterior Skull Base Nasal Inventory-12 (ASK Nasal-12) is a standard tool for assessment of quality of life (QOL) in patients who have undergone endonasal transsphenoidal surgery. As nasal trauma and rhinological complications following endonasal transsphenoidal surgery can influence QOL, the ASK Nasal-12 has been developed to specifically address QOL in these patients.
Minimum clinical important difference (MCID) is defined as the smallest change in health-related quality of life which the patients consider as meaningful. The objective of this study was to determine the MCID for ASK Nasal-12.
Using two distribution-based statistical methods, the authors calculated that the largest MCID for ASK Nasal-12 two weeks postoperatively was between 0.29 and 0.37. Two weeks postop was chosen as the time frame because it is the most common time frame when patients experience worsening of their sinonasal symptoms and QOL. The authors conclude that their results are likely to help clinicians determine the changes in QOL scores representing meaningful clinical change and to develop future QOL studies.
