Quality of Life and Behavioural Assessment in Post-adenotonsillectomy Cases of Paediatric Age Group

Adenotonsillectomy is a widely practiced surgical intervention to manage obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) in the paediatric age group. We conducted a prospective, non randomised, interventional study among 40 patients in paediatric age group (2–18 years) suffering from adenotonsillar hypertrophy with an indication of adenotonsillectomy based on American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery criteria. Care givers completed the obstructive sleep apnoea 18 (OSA 18) quality of life (QoL) survey and Rutter Children’s Behaviour Questionnaire (RCBQ) before adenotonsillectomy as well as 6 months after surgery. We found that mean score of OSA 18 and total RCBQ decreased significantly 6 months after surgery. The mean score of OSA 18 (4.12 ± 1.4) and total RCBQ score (20.5 ± 2) significantly reduced to 1.19 ± 0.12 and 7.4 ± 2.55 (p < 0.0001), respectively, after surgery. There was significant improvement in all the domains of OSA 18 score after intervention including sleep disturbance (mean score change 2.56, p < 0.0001), physical suffering (2.99, p < 0.0001), emotional distress (2.71, p < 0.0001), daytime problems (2.56, p < 0.0001), caregiver concerns (3.76, p < 0.0001). We also observed that QoL as well as behaviour was independent of age and gender of patients. This study demonstrates significant score changes across all questionnaire domains, comparing pre and post operative data indicating an improvement in their quality of life and behaviour. Hence, we advocate that adenotonsillectomy may be considered as an effective treatment in properly selected patients with OSAS.