Long-term follow-up of cellular proliferation as a predictive index for the relapse of nasal polyposis.

BACKGROUND

The objective of this study was to identify a reproducible clinical parameter for predicting relapses of nasal polyposis after surgery.

METHODS

Ninety-three patients who had undergone ethmoidectomy of bilateral nasal polyps were followed for 3 years. Nasal polyps were obtained from all patients, and cellular suspensions were analyzed individually using flow cytometry. Based on the percentage of cells in the S phase, we identified three groups of patients (high, medium, and low percentages).

RESULTS

A relapse of nasal polyposis was observed in 15.00, 70.00, and 100.00% of patients from the low-, medium-, and high-percentage groups, respectively. Patients suffering relapses had a high percentage of cells in the S phase.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified two cutoff values for the percentage of cells in the S phase; above the first cutoff, some of the patients suffered relapses; above the second cut-off, all patients suffered relapses.