Surgery Can Help Kids with Sleep Apnea

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- When a child snores loudly every night it’s a sign of a deeper problem. Heavy, consistent snoring is actually a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A new study done at St. Louis University shows a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy can provide dramatic relief.

Children who suffer from sleep apnea stop breathing periodically during the night and their snoring is very loud. In normal weight children it’s caused by enlargement of the tonsils and adenoids, which aggravates upper airway collapse during sleep and interrupts normal breathing.

An estimated two to four percent of children ages four to six have OSA but the number could be higher since parents don’t always recognize or report the problem. Because they’re not sleeping soundly, OSA can have a negative affect on behavior, health, growth, attention, and memory and classroom performance. It’s also been linked to lower IQ scores. It affects girls and boys equally.

“Obstructive sleep apnea has a considerable impact on children’s quality of life, similar to chronic asthma or rheumatoid arthritis,” Ron Mitchell, M.D., professor of pediatric otolaryngology at St. Louis University and author of the study, was quoted as saying. “Surgery can have a profound effect on children’s life.”

In the study, removal of the tonsils and adenoids successfully solved the problem for 80 to 90 percent of the children who had the surgery. The researchers defined ‘resolution’ as fewer than five interrupted breathing incidents a night.

“The results of the surgery were dramatic, even for children who had persistent OSA,” Dr. Mitchell was quoted as saying. “To go from having 40 or more incidents in a night to having only five or six -- that is a pretty remarkable improvement in their sleep that leads to a dramatic improvement in quality of life.”

There are other treatments for persistent OSA including nasal steroids, allergy treatments, further surgery and continuous airway pressure mask (CPAP). Dr. Mitchell says that children who are overweight must lose weight for the surgery to be successful.

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SOURCE: The Laryngoscope