Sleep-disordered breathing in children is most commonly caused by enlarged adenoids and tonsils, which is cured by tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A) surgery in the majority of cases.
Dr Khoa Tran and colleagues from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, assessed child behavior and quality of life by using standardized surveys completed by parents of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) before and after T&A, compared with 41 children in the control group with no history of snoring undergoing unrelated elective surgery.
In the study, 29% of children in the OSA group demonstrated behavioral and emotional problems, compared to 10% in the control group.
The researchers report, “A significant improvement was found in the total problem score classification after T&A: only 12% of patients scored in the abnormal or borderline range compared with 20% of the control children.” Large improvements in quality of life measures were also found.
“This study provides further evidence that behavioral and emotional problems are present in children with OSA and improve after treatment,” the authors concluded.
The study appears in the Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.