title: OSAS in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Major risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children include adenotonsillar hypertrophy, neuromuscular disease and syndromes such as Down's or Pierre-Robin's syndrome; there is currently no consensus concerning diagnosis and therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study analyses 40 children, aged 2 through 14 years, with macroscopic tonsillar hypertrophy (without recurrent tonsillitis but with OSAS) underwent adenotonsillectomy. Parents were invited to indicate the intensity of their children's symptomatology using a subjective evaluation scale, each patient underwent cephalometric analysis and polysomnography (PSG) before and after surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The subjective scale of symptoms passed from 3.01 before treatment to 0.42 after treatment, rhinomanometry, passed from 3.456 to 0.896 p after 1 month the surgical operation (P<0.05). The polysomnography showed a resolution of the number of obstructive events in 37 patients and a reduction in 3 patients and RDI index fell from a mean of 26.9-2.6 after therapy. The average of oxygen saturation changed from 79% before treatment to 95% after therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adenotonsillectomy plays a major role in the treatment of OSAS.
authors.affiliation: ENT Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. renzomora@libero.it
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mora
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salami
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Passali
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mora
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Cordone
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ottoboni
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barbieri
mesh_terms: D000233:Adenoidectomy / Q000379:methods*; D000234:Adenoids / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006984:Hypertrophy / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D014066:Palatine Tonsil / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D014068:Tonsillectomy / Q000379:methods*