Objective:

Adenoidectomy is a surgical procedure most frequently performed by otolaryngologists. However, there are no universally accepted guidelines for the choice of the surgical approach in specific circumstances. Therefore, a network meta-analysis (NMA) is needed to summarize existing studies and provide more evidence-based medical guidelines.

Methods:

A systematic search of the literature was conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, and EMBASE databases from inception to 31 July 2021. A network meta-analysis of operating time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain score, and incidence of postoperative residual tissue was performed.

Results:

A total of 20 studies with 2329 patients were included. Four common surgical approaches, including powered vacuum shaver adenoidectomy (PVSA), plasma field ablation adenoidectomy (PFAA), curettage adenoidectomy (CUA), and suction diathermy adenoidectomy (SDA), were compared for operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain score, and incidence of postoperative residual tissue. There were no significant differences between the surgical techniques for the 3 endpoints, operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and incidence of postoperative residual tissue. The data showed lower postoperative pain scores for PFAA than for CUA (MD = −3.45, 95% CI [−6.01, −0.95]). There were no significant differences in other surgical approaches for postoperative pain scores.

Conclusion:

There were no significant differences between PVSA, PFAA, CUA, and SDA for operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and incidence of postoperative residual tissue. PFAA had advantages over CUA for postoperative pain scores.

Search results

Comparison Between Different Approaches Applied in Pediatric Adenoidectomy: A Network Meta-Analysis