Adenotonsillectomy Tied to Lower Health Care Use in Pediatric Sleep Disordered Breathing

MONDAY, March 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For children with mild sleep disordered breathing (SDB), adenotonsillectomy is associated with reduced all-cause health care utilization, according to a study published online March 17 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Jessie P. Bakker, Ph.D., from Brigham and Women”s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial, Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy Trial for Snoring, from 2016 to 2022 in tertiary care centers in the United States. Participants were aged 3 to 13 years, diagnosed with mild SDB, and had a tonsillar hypertrophy grade of 2 or more.

The analytic sample included 381 children (median age, 6 years). The researchers found that adenotonsillectomy was associated with reductions of 32 and 48 percent in total health care encounters and prescriptions, respectively (mean difference, −1.25 and −2.53 per participant per year, respectively). Fewer office visits and outpatient procedures were the primary drivers of the difference in encounters, rather than reduced hospitalizations or urgent care visits.

“We have demonstrated that early adenotonsillectomy is associated with a 32 percent reduction in all-cause health care encounters and a 48 percent reduction in prescription medications which, along with primary trial results published previously, supports screening for mild SDB and early intervention,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and publishing industries; one author disclosed holding a related patent.

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