Quality of life after surgical treatment of children with obstructive sleep apnea: long-term results.
OBJECTIVE
To measure the long-term impact of tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy (T&A) on children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).


METHODS
A controlled study on 101 OSA children, operated between June 1999 and January 2001. The OSD-6 was used to assess the results. The caregivers of these patients were asked about their subjective impression prior to surgery (first evaluation), 8 days after the procedure (second evaluation), and with a minimum follow-up of 3 years after the operation (third evaluation).


RESULTS
Mean of follow-up was 61.9+/-13.1 months (range, 36-75 months). The total mean survey score showed a highly significant improvement when comparing first evaluation versus second evaluation, first evaluation versus third evaluation, and second evaluation versus third evaluation (p<0.001). In the same way, we found a favourable outcome in the six domains when visits were compared. Only sleep disturbance between second and third evaluation did not show a significant improvement (p>0.05). There were not differences in the postsurgical outcome of quality of life (QOL) according to the remaining factors studied (p>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Children with OSA who undergo surgery show a significant long-term improvement in QOL.
Díez-Montiel
Alberto
A
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, La Paz Hospital, Autonomous University, Madrid, Spain.
de Diego
Juan I
JI
Prim
Maria P
MP
Martín-Martínez
Maria A
MA
Pérez-Fernández
Elia
E
Rabanal
Iñaki
I
D000233:Adenoidectomy; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors; D014068:Tonsillectomy