Chronic nasal obstruction in children is a very common symptom. Allergic rhinitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the nasal mucosa, is one of the most common cause of nasal obstruction. Besides, adenotonsillar hypertrophy is also the first to blame. Because two diseases are quite common in children, allergic rhinitis and adenotonsillar hypertrophy often coexist. We evaluated the surgical outcome of adenotonsillectomy in children with allergic rhinitis. The goal of this study is to better understand the role of adenotonsillar hypertrophy and its impact on quality of life in allergic rhinitis children.
Methods
We conducted this study on 27 pediatric patients with allergic rhinitis and adenotonsiller hypertrophy and 33 patients with adenotonsillar hypertrophy only. Demographic data, clinical examination including oral and nasal endoscopy, and skull lateral view were obtained. The mean age, Brodsky tonsil size, adenoid size, and BMI were similar between two groups. A follow-up evaluation, which included questionnaires of clinical scores, physical examinations and skull lateral view were performed 3, 6 months after adenotonsillectomy.
Results
When the preoperative and postoperative results were compared, postoperative scores for sleep related symptoms were significantly improved from preoperative scores in both groups. The history of frequent URI and antibiotic therapy after surgery was no significant differences between two groups. The improvements of nasal symptoms including nasal obstruction, were significantly higher in non-allergic group.(p<0.01) The adenoid regrowth rate was slightly higher in non-allergic group.(p<0.05)
Conclusions
Our findings confirm that adenotonsillectomy is a satisfactory treatment for sleep related in adenotonsillar hypertrophic children with or without allergic rhinitis. Though some nasal symptoms depends on post operative allergic treatments, there is a dramatic improvement in the quality of life after adenotonsillectomy in allergic rhinitis children.