After birth, children repeatedly have “cold” symptoms, often runny during the day, nasal congestion, restless sleep at night, frequent tossing and turning during sleep, heavy breathing sounds, and even “snoring” like adults. Most parents think it is caused by rhinitis, and parents take their children to different hospitals repeatedly, but few people think that these manifestations may be caused by pediatric adenoid hypertrophy. Pediatric adenoid hypertrophy leads to nasal congestion, runny nose and restless sleep at night. In severe cases, it can lead to a decrease in oxygen saturation in the human body at night, causing a lack of oxygen to brain cells, resulting in brain cell damage, affecting the intellectual development of children and having a negative effect on their growth and development.
What is adenoids?
Adenoids are lymphatic tissues in the nasopharynx, also known as pharyngeal tonsils, located at the back and top of the nasopharynx. 2-10 years old is the period of proliferation of adenoids, after 10 years old, they gradually start to shrink, and most of them disappear in adulthood. If the adenoids are enlarged due to multiple infections in childhood, they are called adenoid hypertrophy or proliferative hypertrophy. The disease is a pathological hyperplasia of the pharyngeal tonsils, often caused by pharyngeal infections and repeated inflammatory stimuli. It is more common in cold, humid and climatically variable areas. Acute infectious diseases, malnutrition and physical factors in childhood can also induce this disease, although it is a childhood disease, it has far-reaching effects on the normal development and health of the body.
What are the clinical symptoms?
1. Ear symptoms: hearing loss, tinnitus, and stuffy ears may be present. Or children may suffer from otitis media.
2. Nasal symptoms: nasal congestion, runny nose, open mouth breathing, salivation, speech with occlusive nasal sound, sleep snoring and other symptoms.
3. Respiratory tract infection symptoms: throat discomfort, voice changes, such as raspy, coarse voice, coughing and spitting, shortness of breath, low fever, etc.
4. “Adenoid face”: Due to long-term open-mouth breathing, the facial bone development is affected, the maxilla is narrow, the hard palate is high and narrow, the teeth protrude, the teeth are irregular, the bite is bad, the lower jaw droops, the lips are thick, the upper lip is upturned, the lower lip hangs, the outer canthus is pulled down, the nasolabial groove is shallow and flat, plus there is mental depression, the facial expression is dull and obtuse, which becomes the so-called “adenoid face”.
5. Systemic symptoms: It can be manifested as poor nutritional development, chicken breast, anemia, emaciation, low fever, indigestion, easy fatigue, headache, inattention, boredom, easy to be frightened, irritable temperament, grinding teeth in sleep at night, urination, etc.
What tests are needed to confirm the diagnosis?
1. Local examination of otorhinolaryngology: congestion in the pharynx, inflammatory purulent secretions in the posterior pharyngeal wall, soft lymphatic tissue masses in the posterior wall of the nasopharynx, no bleeding, and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck can be found.
2. Through pediatric fiberoptic nasopharyngoscopy and X-ray nasopharyngeal lateral radiography or CT examination, it can help to diagnose the disease, and it should be distinguished from postnasal orifice polypharyngeal tumor, such as lymphosarcoma.
IV. Chinese and Western medicine treatment
In recent years, due to the influence of air pollution and other factors, its incidence is on the rise. If adenoid hypertrophy blocks the airway and leads to insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, surgery is required.
For children with milder symptoms or parents of some children who are concerned about surgery, Chinese medicine can be used to require conservative treatment.
This disease belongs to the category of “phlegm nucleus” and “gall tumor” in Chinese medicine.
Because TCM believes that children are infantile Yin and Yang, their bodies are not yet full of vital energy, their internal organs are delicate, and their lungs, spleen, and kidneys are often deficient, the occurrence of this disease is mostly related to lung and spleen-Qi deficiency, phlegm stagnation, and lung and kidney-Yin deficiency.
Children’s lung health is not solid, so they are susceptible to wind-cold and wind-heat evils. The six evil spirits enter from the skin and hair, or from the mouth and nose, and first offend the lungs, the lungs contain heat, the purification of the loss of descending, with heat through the steam and burning the throat, resulting in unfavorable opening and closing of the throat, the lung Qi; spleen is often deficient, spleen deficient in transport and transformation, the fluid into phlegm, blocking the throat, resulting in unfavorable opening and closing of the throat, the lung Qi; children often have excess Yang, kidney is often deficient, coupled with the feeling of evil, easy to turn heat into fire, injuring the Yin and fluid, burning on the deficiency fire, phlegm and stagnation of each other, blocking the This disease is caused by the pharynx.
According to the Chinese medical theory that the lung is open to the nose, the nose is the lung’s orifice, and the throat is the lung’s portal, combined with the physiological characteristics that the liver is always surplus and the lung, spleen and kidney are always deficient, I propose to treat the disease by tonifying the qi and strengthening the spleen, dispelling dampness and phlegm, promoting the lung to open the orifice, and activating blood circulation. The treatment of adenoid hypertrophy in children was based on the formula of Seaweed Yuhu Tang, with good results.