Background: There has been increasing evidence over the last few years that paediatric sleep-disordered breathing is associated with behavioural and neurocognitive problems as well as with poor school performance, failure to thrive and poor health related quality of life (HRQL). Several studies indicate that both behaviour and quality of life improve after tonsillectomy (TE) in children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). However, TE causes considerable pain and morbidity which often lasts more than seven days. Postoperative pain is poorly managed and under-treatment of pain leads to increased morbidity and postoperative behavioural changes. Tonsillotomy (TT) for obstructive symptoms has re-appeared with focus on reduction of postoperative morbidity. Removing only the protruding parts of the tonsils seems to have the same beneficial long-term effect on obstructive symptoms due to hypertrophic tonsils.

Material and Method: Children and youths have been studied in relation to tonsil surgery with the goal of improving care and comparisons have been made between TT and TE.

The first part of this presentation will cover three randomized trials of children and youth  4 to 25 years old with respect to pain and morbidity and with six months to three years follow-up including assessment of HRQL.

The second part presents preliminary results from a Swedish national study of a sample of 550 children (4-15 yrs) to determine the impact on HRQL before and six months after TT or TE.

In the studies, the impact on HRQL was evaluated in the younger age group using the Obstructive Sleep Apnea-18 (OSA-18), Glasgow Children´s Benefit Inventory (GCBI); their behavioural and emotional problems were assessed using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). In the age group 16-25 yrs, the HRQL was measured using the SF-36.

Results: In the TT groups, the children recorded less pain from the first day after surgery onwards, used fewer doses of painkillers, and were pain-free 3 days (5-15yrs)/4 days (16-25 yrs) earlier than the children/youths in the TE group. For most TT patients, the combination of Paracetamol and Diclophenac was sufficient for analgesia. However, most of the TE patients with that medication had considerable pain and 50% still experienced substantial pain after one week. Before surgery, HRQL was registered as much lower among patients with obstruction problems when compared to the reference sample. Surgery with either tonsillotomy or tonsillectomy was associated with a marked improvement of the quality of life both for children with severe obstructive sleep related distress or with milder sleep disordered breathing.

Conclusion: TT is a safe method, which causes less pain and postoperative morbidity than regular TE. Children and young adults with tonsillar hypertrophy and different degrees of obstructive sleep related distress all show a negative impact on HRQL and behaviour. All improve dramatically after a tonsillar operation—equally after TT as compared to TE.