Every child is the heart of mom and dad. When the heart is sick, mom and dad are very anxious and have countless questions about the diagnosis, treatment and complications of the disease, especially when the doctor mentions surgery, our mom and dad are as upset as a knife. However, in the face of pediatric snoring, chronic tonsillitis and adenoid hypertrophy, we need to be sensible. The following is our summary based on textbooks and years of clinical experience, mainly to answer mothers and fathers who have countless questions.
Mother of a child: Is pediatric snoring a disease?
A: Is pediatric snoring a disease? Many mothers of children think that snoring during sleep is a common sleep phenomenon, they think that the little baby snoring during sleep is a good performance of sleep, most of these babies like to sleep on their stomachs, and sleep unfaithfully, roll all over the bed, older still often bedwetting, and even more individual baby sleep will appear to hold awake, when you find your little baby has the above situation, you must be alert, is the baby Is it a disease?
The medical term for pediatric snoring is pediatric snoring or pediatric sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome (OSAHS). It refers to hypoxemia during sleep due to partial or complete upper airway obstruction. The long-term snoring of children causes the decrease of sleep quality, which inevitably reduces the release of growth hormone and leads to the slow growth of children; secondly, the long-term snoring of children makes children seriously deprived of oxygen during sleep, which directly leads to the lack of oxygen supply for brain development, resulting in the backward intellectual development of children; thirdly, the long-term snoring of children with open mouth breathing affects the face of children, and children’s upper and lower teeth bite abnormally when snoring due to nasopharyngeal obstruction and open mouth breathing In the long run, the upper teeth may be convex, the lips may be upturned, the face may be elongated, and the eyes may be dull, which is called “adenoid face”.
The mother of the child: why does the child snore?
Physician: Snoring is caused by narrowing of the passages through the nose and the mouth. When the airflow passes through these narrow parts, it triggers vibration and produces an unpleasant snoring sound; at the same time, snoring may reduce the oxygen content in the child’s blood, thus affecting the child’s organism. The cause of pediatric snoring is relatively single, i.e. it is mostly seen in chronic tonsillitis and adenoid hypertrophy, which leads to narrowing of the nasal and oral airways and triggers snoring.
The mother of the child: What are tonsils?
Doctor: When we open our mouth, we can see the oval glands located in the lateral wall of the pharynx, one on each side, and this oval gland visible to the naked eye is called palatine tonsils, which is often referred to as tonsils; tonsils are located in the lateral wall of the pharyngeal isthmus, between the lingual-palatal arch and the pharyngeal-palatal arch, and are flat and oval.
The mother of the child: What is the role of the tonsils?
Doctor: The tonsils are like the body’s gatekeepers. They produce lymphocytes and antibodies, so they have an anti-bacterial and anti-viral defense function. But it is also the pathway for eating and breathing, so it is often exposed to germs or residual foreign bodies.
Mother of the child: What do you mean by chronic tonsillitis?
Doctor: Chronic tonsillitis is more common in children, it is mostly caused by repeated attacks of acute tonsillitis or poor drainage of the crypt, the crypt is prone to breeding bacteria, germs and evolve into chronic tonsillitis; some children have recurrent tonsillitis, 3 to 5 times a year, or even once a month. The tonsils are often inflamed and consumed by the body, which leads to poor health and resistance of the child, and as soon as the weather changes or strain, the tonsils become inflamed, which means that the tonsils, a gatekeeper with defense functions, become a thief, and this recurrent tonsillitis is harmful to the pediatric organism.
The mother of the child: should the tonsils be removed?
Doctors: Tonsils during childhood are like the body’s gatekeepers and have a defensive function, so as long as they don’t often cause problems for babies, there is no reason to say they should be removed. But when a child’s tonsils are repeatedly inflamed, it can lead to tonsil hypertrophy, narrowing the airway in the oropharynx, resulting in poor breathing through the mouth and even affecting the child’s swallowing, and this long-term poor breathing through the mouth can cause chronic hypoxia in children, so children with frequent inflammation of the tonsils are smaller, and at the same time, academic performance is not ideal; this repeated inflammation of the tonsils in children can even cause focal tonsillitis. This means that the tonsils have completely lost their function as a gatekeeper and defense for the human body, but instead they are harmful to the child’s organism, i.e. the tonsils, the gatekeeper, become a thief. At the same time, repeated inflammation of the tonsils may also affect the adjacent organs, such as sinusitis, otitis media, etc.; at the same time will also cause some impact on the respiratory tract, such as tracheobronchitis or recurrent colds; and even cause some serious complications, such as rheumatic fever, heart disease, nephritis, etc.; so that the cut is to see whether the removal of tonsils brings more benefits than disadvantages, or more disadvantages than benefits, if it is more disadvantages than benefits. Of course the tonsils should be removed. Of course, if there are no disadvantages mentioned above, our tonsils can still coexist with us peacefully.
Mother: Are there any risks associated with tonsil surgery? Is there a possibility of bleeding after surgery? Will it be particularly painful after surgery?
Doctor: At present, our department uses minimally invasive surgery to remove tonsils, and the surgery is completed in the shortest possible time.
After the operation, we will encourage the children to use cold drinks as early as possible, and eat some low-temperature, liquid food with less irritation, and do more swallowing action to reduce the oral saliva soaking the operation area for a long time, so that the operation area trauma recovery faster; at the same time, we will encourage the children to gargle saline repeatedly after the operation to reduce the infection in the operation area and reduce the occurrence of postoperative complications; after the operation, they can talk more as early as possible to restore the normal function of the pharynx as soon as possible. The white membrane in the tonsillar area will fall off 5-7 days after surgery, after which the child can be safely discharged from the hospital; our professional and meticulous nursing team will minimize the complications after tonsillar surgery.
Our department uses minimally invasive surgery to remove the tonsils. After the operation, the child feels less pain in the operation area, so he can take cold drinks to reduce the pain, and if necessary, he can take an analgesic pump to minimize the postoperative pain.
The mother of the child: Is there any risk of general anesthesia? General anesthesia is too scary, will general anesthesia have any effect on the child? Does general anesthesia have an effect on intelligence?
Doctor: Before this, for example, the United States as one of the world’s most economically and technologically advanced countries, and in the United States is also one of the highest rate of adoption of general anesthesia in the world, after the general anesthesia, the Americans did not find that the impact of general anesthesia on the body, and the American scientific and technological innovation is also very strong, and even got the Nobel Prize, so that the current technology and drugs of general anesthesia on the impact of intelligence is very small.
General anesthesia technology and drugs are constantly improving, the development of more rapid in recent years, with the improvement of medical standards, the use of general anesthesia drugs continue to improve, so that the side effects of drugs are becoming smaller and smaller.
This type of anesthesia, general anesthesia, is especially suitable for young children. During the operation, the anesthesiologist will monitor the child’s vital signs, closely monitor the brain, heart, kidneys and other important organs, and adjust the medication at any time according to the child’s intraoperative condition to ensure the safety of anesthesia. Anesthesia is a reversible process, and after surgery, as the anesthetic drugs are discontinued, the anesthetic drugs will gradually metabolize and disappear, and the child will slowly wake up.
Mother of the child: Will there be immune deficiency after surgery?
Doctor: Long-term recurrent inflammation of the pediatric tonsils causes loss of the gatekeeper and defense function of the pediatric organism and can be harmful to the pediatric organism. At the same time, the palatine tonsils, pharyngeal tonsils, pharyngeal tonsils and lingual tonsils, which together form the inner ring of the pharyngeal lymphatic ring, participate in the immune and defense functions; the surgery to remove the palatine tonsils, the remaining three pairs of tonsils will continue to participate in the immune and defense functions, not only will not reduce the immunity and resistance of the child, but also will reduce various diseases caused by repeated inflammation of the tonsils.
Mother: Does it affect the voice after surgery?
Doctor: Generally speaking, it depends on the vocal cords and has nothing to do with the tonsils, one in the pharyngeal cavity and one in the laryngeal cavity. Also, the resonance cavity of the oral cavity will be enlarged after surgery, and the voice will be brighter after surgery.
Mother of the child: What are adenoids?
Doctor: Adenoids, also called pharyngeal tonsils or proliferators, are located behind the nose, above the tonsils, and are similar to the tonsils in that they are also lymphatic tissue.
Mother: When is it necessary to remove the adenoids?
Doctor: Adenoid hypertrophy is a pathological hyperplasia of the adenoids due to repeated stimulation of inflammation, causing obstruction of the posterior nostril, which can cause poor nasal ventilation in children, snoring during sleep, children like to sleep on their stomachs, and more serious children may even experience breathing pauses or wake up at night; adenoid hypertrophy may also block the passage between the ear and the nasal cavity, which can This can cause secretory otitis media in children, resulting in hearing loss; even some children with adenoid hypertrophy may have facial bone development deformities, resulting in an “adenoid face”. Children with adenoid hypertrophy are often combined with chronic tonsillitis, and the adenoids need to be removed along with the tonsils.
Mother: What do you mean by adenoids?
Doctor: The so-called adenoid face refers to the facial bone development disorder due to the adenoid hypertrophy, the jaw bone becomes longer, the palate bone is high arch, the teeth are not aligned, the upper incisors protrude, the lip is thick, the lack of expression face, also can become “dementia face”, once formed, it is difficult to recover.
Mother of the child: Will the tonsils and adenoids recur after removal?
Doctor: After removing the tonsils, there are no tonsils left, so there is no recurrence. After removal of adenoids, a long-term standardized nasal spray (Nesuna nasal spray) is needed after surgery to reduce the chance of adenoid recurrence. In particular, direct transoral excision in our hospital is safe and thorough and minimally invasive, avoiding damage to the nasal mucosa so that nasal adhesions do not occur.
In conclusion, the removal of tonsils and adenoids should be considered based on the principle of advantages and disadvantages, rather than considering them as protective organs and ignoring the disadvantages caused by their enlargement or recurrent inflammation. Therefore, we hope that mothers and fathers will fully understand and then discuss with us to develop a reasonable treatment for their babies. Together, we wish our babies to grow up healthy and smart!