Selected Risk Factors in Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy

Prolonged hospitalization following tonsillectomy in healthy children

“…However, our study suggests that while gender is not a significant risk factor, young age does increase the risk of unexpected prolonged hospitalization. A higher rate of complications following tonsillectomy has been reported in children under the age of 3 yr old [5][6][7]. In addition to age, other factors such as operative technique and indications of operation may also affect the length of stay, however a detailed multi-factorial analysis of these variables was beyond the scope of this study.…”

Obesity and risk of peri-operative complications in children presenting for adenotonsillectomy

“…It should also be noted that we used a clinical diagnosis for SDB. While we realize that overnight polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for OSA diagnosis [23,24]; this is an expensive tool that is often not readily available. To this end our institution and others [25] do not routinely require pre-operative PSG in children before T&A.…”

Age specific differences in pediatric obstructive sleep apnea

“…Respiratory compromise after T&A has been reported in as few as 0.4% to as many as 27% of children [2][3][4][5][6][7]9,10]. Children with OSA are at risk for post-operative respiratory complications for multiple reasons.…”

“…As a consequence, it has generally been recommended to observe these children with a planned post-operative hospital admission [2][3][4][5][6][7]. However, the preponderance of studies on post-operative T&A complications have been retrospective, did not evaluate children preoperatively with polysomnography, or were based on relatively small sample sizes.…”

“…Some reviews regarding postoperative complications seem to indicate that age is an important risk factor, with the youngest children being at greatest risk. Although a number of studies are available, they are based on small sample sizes and many did not evaluate the children with polysomnography preoperatively [2][3][4][5][6][7]. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate age specific OSA abnormalities in children by polysomnography.…”