title: The effect of adenoid and tonsil surgery on nasalance.
abstract: The change in nasalance following adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy and adenotonsillectomy was studied in 44 children. A subjective assessment of each child's naso-pharyngeal airway was made preoperatively based on a questionnaire completed by the parents. There was no significant change in the nasalance of children following adenoidectomy, but there was a significant increase in the nasalance following tonsillectomy (P = 0.02) and after adenotonsillectomy (P = 0.001). There was no relationship between the change in nasalance and the adenoid volume removed at operation. There was good agreement between the parental subjective assessment of the naso-pharyngeal airway and the preoperative nasalance score, with the best correlation in the adenoidectomy group (r = -0.8) and the adenotonsillectomy group (r = -0.7). Nasalance is more closely related to the size of the naso-pharyngeal airway than to the actual adenoid volume, and measurements of nasalance are of no benefit in predicting adenoid volume. Tonsillectomy had a significantly greater effect on nasalance than adenoidectomy, and adenotonsillectomy had the greatest effect. Further studies are needed to relate nasalance to the size of the naso-pharyngeal airway, but it appears to relate well to the subjective assessment of the airway and may be of use in patient selection for surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Preece
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rhys
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eccles
mesh_terms: D000233:Adenoidectomy; D000234:Adenoids / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015508:Nasal Obstruction / Q000473:pathology; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000473:pathology; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology; D012913:Snoring; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D014068:Tonsillectomy; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology*