Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Hello, I am Dr Harmeet Singh Pasricha I am an ENT specialist working in Gurgaon for last 20 years. Today I am going to speak on a topic called paediatric obstructive sleep apnea or paediatric OSA. This is a common condition in children which present as mouth breathing during sleep during children and there is snoring also during sleep. This happens usually in the age group of 4 to 8 years during sleep it happens because there is an abstraction in the nose patient cannot breathe through the nose so it starts breathing through the mouth. This happens because of increase in the size of the tonsils and adenoids, tonsils are a pair of lymphatic tissue in the throat and adenoid is similar tissue which is situated in the midline behind the nose in the throat. When these adenoid increase in size then there is obstruction of the nose from the back side so a child cannot breathe through the nose. So in advertly opens the mouth to breathe, there is lack of oxygenation in the body and patient is restless during sleep and because of continued mouth breathing because of the growing age in the children, there are changes which developed in the face and nose of the patient. In it the front teeth come out and the pallet which is the partition between the nose and the throat it goes up, the development of the nose is reduced it forms the pins nose and the bones of the cheek they elongate downwards and the patient develops and adenoid faces. So because of the growing age, this has to control and we have to manage the patient medically. Initially, if the medical management of the patient fails then we have to go in for surgery. The surgery involves removal of the tonsil that is tonsillectomy and removal of adenoids that is adenoidectomy. Now because of its a procedure is done under general anaesthesia and adenoidectomy is now usually these days done under direct vision using the endoscopic technique transnasal or transoral technique and it is done with powered instruments now usually using micro debrider or coblation and adenoidectomy is done, so which opens up the space of the nasofarings and patient can breathe through the nose and tonsils are also removed. So the airways opened up and once the patient breathes smoother nose properly, he gets proper oxygenation and the shape of the face can be prevented from distortion. Thank you, you can contact me at my clinic a Dr Pasricha’s ENT & Eye Care Centre, Old Jail Land Complex, Sohna Adda, Gurugram, or at Columbia Asia Hospital, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon or you can book an appointment on lybrate.com. Thank you.