Does Adenotonsillectomy Cure Pediatric Sleep Apnea?

Objective 1) Perform an updated meta‐analysis to determine the cure rate of adenotonsillectomy for pediatric sleep apnea. 2) Report the findings of 5 years of experience with standardized coblation intracapsular tonsillectomy for the treatment of pediatric sleep apnea. Methods A thorough literature search of multiple databases was performed. Inclusion criteria for studies were: 1) Adenotonsillectomy as the primary treatment of sleep apnea (age<18). 2) Pre‐and postoperative polysomnography data was included. 20 studies fit the inclusion criteria and a metaanalysis was performed to determine the overall success. A 5–year retrospective analysis of coblation tonsillectomy performed by a single surgeon for sleep apnea was also performed. Results The meta‐analysis included 904 subjects with average follow‐up time of 21.6 weeks. The effect measure was the percentage of pediatric patients with OSAHS who were successfully treated (k= 20 studies) with T/A based on pre‐and postoperative PSG data. Random‐effects model estimated the treatment success of adenotonsillectomy was 61.1%. When “cure” was defined as an AHI of <1, the cure rate was 53.8%. 200 adenotonsillectomy cases performed with coblation technique were reviewed. The mean preoperative was AHI 28.3 and mean postoperative AHI was 3.8. Surgical cure, as defined as a postoperative AHI <1, was achieved in 51.7% of patients. Conclusions 1) Contrary to popular belief, meta‐analysis of current literature and a review of 200 cases demonstrates that pediatric sleep apnea is often not cured by adenotonsillectomy. 2) Although complete resolution is not achieved in most cases, adenotonsillectomy still offers significant improvements in AHI.