Adenotonsillectomy Outcomes in Treatment of Paediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Removing the tonsils and adenoids is the most common surgery for childhood sleep apnoea. But how well does it actually work? This study followed 578 children across eight sleep centres to find out.

The good news: surgery dramatically reduced the number of times children stopped breathing per hour of sleep — from about 18 to about 4. That's a major improvement for most families.

The important caveat: only 27% of children were completely cured. The rest still had some degree of sleep apnoea after surgery — especially children over 7 and children who were overweight. Their tonsils and adenoids were gone, but the underlying problem — a jaw and face that hadn't grown large enough — was still there.

This doesn't mean surgery isn't worth it. For many children, it makes a huge difference. But it does mean that tonsil removal alone isn't always enough. The structure of the face itself — the size of the jaw, the width of the palate — may need to be addressed as part of a complete treatment plan.