The Potential Protective Effects of Statins in Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Case–Control Study

Objectives/Hypothesis To determine the potential protective effect of prior statin use on the subsequent diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Study Design Retrospective, case‐control. Methods Electronic medical records for all patients seen in the otolaryngology clinic in 2019 and receiving a diagnosis of CRS were reviewed for the presence or absence of active prior statin use within 365 days of the visit. Similarly, prior statin use in a control group of patients without any diagnosis of CRS was also determined. Statin exposure in CRS patients was compared to statin exposure in control patients with 1:2 matching on age and sex with chi‐square and odds ratios were computed. Results In 2019, 3655 patients (mean age, 52.9 years, 56.4% female) were identified with a diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis versus 41,636 patients without any diagnosis of CRS. All chronic rhinosinusitis patients were successfully matched to 7310 controls. 6.3% of CRS patients (229 patients) had prior statin use, versus 8.5% (624 patients) of control patients. The average mean duration of statin use prior to visit was not significantly different between CRS and control patients (mean days, 202.3 days versus 205.6 days, respectively; P = .697). The presence of a statin medication in use was associated with a significant protective effect against a subsequent diagnosis of CRS with and odds ratio for CRS diagnosis of 0.716 (95% confidence interval, 0.612–0.838) in those patients taking a statin medication ( P  < .001). Conclusions The use of a statin medication was associated with a significant reduction in subsequent diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis. Level of Evidence 3 Laryngoscope , 131:E1431–E1433, 2021