Abstract
Objective: Adenotonsillectomy is a common procedure for treating pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It improves child growth as well as his psychological status. The objectives of this study are to compare the results of pre and postoperative polysomnographic data in terms of sleep structure and to identify the difference of each sleep stage.
Method: This is a prospective study of sleep structures of pediatric OSA patients, done on 26 children with OSA. Mean age was 4.5 years. It was done in a tertiary university hospital. All children had adenotonsillectomy. Standard over-night polysomnography was performed pre-operatively and one to three months postoperatively.
Results: We identified significant improvements of mean apnea hypopnea index (AHI) after the adeno-tonsillectomy from 17.1 to 3.53 (P < .001). Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep did not change significantly. Both Stage 2 and slow wave stage did not change significantly. We also identified significant improvement in the arousal index from 23 to 11 (P < .001).
Conclusion: We compared pre and post operative sleep structures in OSA children after adenotonsillectomy. We identified significant polysomnographic changes in the sleep structures in form of reduction of sleep stage 1 and arousal index. These polysomnographic parameters may lead to improvement of their physical and psychological conditions after the operation.
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