• Ron B Mitchell, James Kelly, Ellen Call, and Naomi Yao.
• Department of Surgery, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque 87131, USA. rmitchell@salud.unm.edu
• Arch Otolaryngol. 2004 Apr 1; 130 (4): 409-12.

ObjectiveTo study long-term changes in quality of life in children after adenotonsillectomy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) documented by polysomnography.Design And SettingProspective study of children with OSA at the University of New Mexico Children's Hospital, Albuquerque.MethodsChildren who met inclusion criteria underwent adenotonsillectomy. Caregivers were asked to complete the OSA-18 quality of life survey prior to surgery (survey 1), within 7 months after surgery (short-term) (survey 2), and between 9 and 24 months after surgery (long-term) (survey 3). Scores from the preoperative and postoperative surveys were compared using the paired t test.ResultsThe study population included 34 children, 27 (79%) of whom were male. The mean age of the children at the time of inclusion in the study was 6.7 years (range, 3.0-16.8 years). The mean total score for survey 1 (76.7) was significantly higher (P<.001) than the mean total score for survey 2 (32.0) or for survey 3 (40.9). However, the domains of sleep disturbance and physical suffering were significantly lower (PConclusionsCaregivers perceive a long-term improvement in quality of life after adenotonsillectomy for OSA although these improvements are more pronounced in the short-term than in the long-term and are not uniform across all domains of the OSA-18 survey.

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