The benefits of surgery to alleviate Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) may be short lived in some kids. A recent year-long study was conducted at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, which was based on measures of sleep symptoms, Body-Mass Index (BMI) and blood pressure in 30 children (aged 7-13 years) who had undergone adenotonsillectomy (surgery to remove the tonsils and adenoids). It was found that while most children experienced an improvement in symptoms 6 weeks after surgery, 27% of non-obese children and 79% of obese children showed a significant relapse of symptoms 1 year after the surgery. The results suggest that the chance of relapse was correlated with obesity, race (especially African-American’s), high blood pressure, the severity of SDB and rapid weight gain after surgery.
Am J Respir Crit care Med 2008 Mar 15;177(6); 654-9. Epub 2008 jan 3