OSAS in children

Background: Major risk factors for obstructive steep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children include adenotonsillar hypertrophy, neuromuscular disease and syndromes such as Down's or Pierre-Robin's syndrome; there is currently no consensus concerning diagnosis and therapy. Methods: The study analyses 40 children, aged 2 through 14 years, with macroscopic tonsillar hypertrophy (without recurrent tonsillitis but with OSAS) underwent adenotonsillectomy. Parents were invited to indicate the intensity of their children's symptomatology using a subjective evaluation scale, each patient underwent cephatometric analysis and polysomnography (PSG) before and after surgery. Results: The subjective scale of symptoms passed from 3.01 before treatment to 0.42 after treatment, rhinomanometry, passed from 3.456 to 0.896 p after 1 month the surgical. operation (P<0.05). The polysomnography showed a resolution of the number of obstructive events in 37 patients and a reduction in 3 patients and RDI index felt from a mean of 26.9-2.6 after therapy. The average of oxygen saturation changed from 79% before treatment to 95% after therapy. Conclusions: Adenotonsillectomy plays a major role in the treatment of OSAS. (C) 2003 British Association for Paediatric Otorhinolaryngology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.