Postoperative precautions for pediatric adenoid hypertrophy

  1. Diet: Children who undergo tonsil + adenoid surgery should strictly observe a cold liquid diet, such as milk, juice, soy milk, water, drinks, soup and other things, three days after surgery (including the day of surgery). Starting from the fourth postoperative day, a semi-liquid diet for one week is allowed, such as porridge, rotten noodles, steamed eggs, soft bread, cakes soaked in water, etc. Large solid, hot foods are strictly prohibited. Thereafter, the diet will be determined by the physician depending on the wound healing at the follow-up visit.  For children who underwent adenoids surgery only, a cold liquid diet is required on the day of surgery, and a semi-liquid diet can be eaten for a week from the first day after surgery.  2.Fever treatment: Within four or five days after surgery, children may have fever. This is mostly normal surgical fever, no special treatment is needed. If the body temperature exceeds 38 or 5 degrees Celsius, antipyretic drugs can be taken and a lot of water can be drunk, and the normal range can be restored by itself after a few days. If there is persistent high fever (more than 38 or 5 degrees Celsius), taking antipyretic drugs is ineffective, accompanied by more serious cough, please go to the ENT clinic of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center in time.  3. Treatment of nasal congestion: Within 2 weeks after surgery, the child may have nasal congestion and snoring all the time. It is caused by postoperative mucous membrane swelling and white membrane covering the nasopharynx. Local nasal drops need to be used all the time. Generally, the symptoms will gradually disappear and be relieved after 2 weeks of surgery.  4.Sore throat treatment: After surgery, children may eat less because of obvious sore throat. Parents should encourage the child to eat more liquid food, otherwise postoperative hyperthermia may easily occur. And the wound healing is poor, the white membrane is thick, and it is easy to bleed when the white membrane comes off.  5.Post-operative care: From the fifth day after surgery to about 2 weeks, it is the period of white membrane shedding in the pharynx, that is, with the swallowing action, there can be white membrane shedding, which sometimes leads to bleeding, most of the bleeding is a small amount, delicious with ice, bleeding will stop by itself. If there is a large amount of bleeding, you need to go to the ENT Department of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center immediately to stop the bleeding. Our clinic hours are Monday through Saturday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. There is no emergency room in our department, but if the bleeding occurs outside of clinic hours, please go to our emergency pre-screening office, and the nurse there will contact the surgeon to stop the bleeding.  6.If there is rhinitis diagnosed before the surgery, the child needs to continue to treat the rhinitis after the surgery, usually with topical nasal drops and oral anti-allergy medication for 2 months.  7.If the child has tympanic tube placement, he/she should not swim for six months after the tube placement and should not enter water in the ear canal bilaterally, and should follow up after six months to check the tube placement.  8. Individual children may experience neck pain after surgery, which is a normal postoperative reaction. Give the child no pillow to sleep, apply local heat and reduce neck activities, and the child will recover in a week or so.