Correlation analysis between quality of life and clinical symptoms and imaging features in patients after endoscopic transnasal or transoral approach for resection of skull base chordoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between clinical symptoms and imaging features with quality of life in patients after endoscopic transnasal or transoral approach for resection of skull base chordoma. Methods The clinical and imaging data of 14 patients with skull base chordoma who underwent endoscopic transnasal or transoral approach for resection in Tianjin Huanhu Hospital from March 2016 to March 2022 were retrospectively analysed. Quality of life after endoscopic skull base chordoma resection was measured by 36‑Item Short‑Form Health Survey (SF‑36). The correlation between clinical symptoms and imaging features with SF‑ 36 was investigated using Point‑Biserial correlation and partial correlation analyses. Results Correlation analyses indicated that headache (r = ‑ 0.998, P = 0.043), diplopia (r = ‑ 0.999, P = 0.032), visual disturbance (r = ‑ 0.998, P = 0.037), sinus symptoms (r = ‑ 0.997, P = 0.047）, subtotal or most partial removal (r = ‑ 0.998, P = 0.038) were negatively correlated with body pain in SF‑36, while postoperative radiotherapy (r = 0.998, P = 0.038), total clival tumor (r = 0.998, P = 0.036) and tumor volume > 20 cm3 (r = 0.999, P = 0.035) were positively correlated with body pain in SF ‑ 36. Conclusions Patients with skull base chordoma who have headache, diplopia, visual disturbance, sinus symptoms, and subtotal or most partial removal possibly have reduced quality of life after endoscopic resection. The patients with the clinical symptoms and imaging features above deserve more attention.

Keywords

• chordoma
• skull base
• quality of life
• neuroendoscopy
• microsurgery