RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To study the incidence, clinical features and related factors of nasosinusitis after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. METHODS: Five hundred and thirteen patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were included in the study, to observe the clinical manifestation and image changes before and after radiotherapy. The incidence and influencing factors of nasosinusitis after radiotherapy were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 513 patients, before radiotherapy, nasosinusitis was found in 51 patients (9.9%). After radiotherapy, another 401 nasosinusitis was found (401/462). The difference of incidence rate of nasosinusitis before and after radiotherapy was obvious (chi2 = 533.21, P < 0.01). The incidence rate of nasosinusitis in the end of radiotherapy, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months after radiotherapy was 10.7% (43/401), 13.7% (55/401), 58.1% (233/401), 12.0% (48/401), 5.5% (22/401) respectively. The incidence rate of nasosinusitis after fractional radiotherapy and continuous radiotherapy was 35.7% (143/401), 64.3% (258/401) respectively. CONCLUSION: The incidence rate of nasosinusitis after radiotherapy is very high. It is influenced by the dose of radiotherapy, but it has no relation with the extension of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.