Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract

A computerized Ovid search of MEDLINE from 1966 to September 2005 was performed. The term “obstructive sleep apnea” was searched and the resulting articles were cross-referenced with those obtained by exploding “tonsillectomy” or “adenoidectomy.” The results were cross-referenced with the phrases “sleep study or respiratory distress index,” or “polysomnogram” or “sleep study.” A manual search of the bibliographies yielded no additional articles. Articles were identified that met the following inclusion criteria: 1) children <18 years old with at least a clinical history of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), 2) treatment with a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, or both, and 3) evaluation with both pre- and posttreatment nocturnal polysomnogram. Exclusion criteria were preexisting craniofacial abnormalities, history of Down syndrome, retrospective studies, and children who had other surgical procedures than adenotonsillectomy. Six studies that met these inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in the subsequent review [1–6].