After surgical removal of the adenoids and palatine tonsils (adenotonsillectomy), it becomes easier to control the symptoms of asthma in children.

Researchers at the University of Chicago say.

In their study, the results of which are presented in PLoS Medicine, the authors compared the number of hospitalizations and appointments in asthmatic children before and after adenotonsillectomy..

Intuition did not fail scientists: after the operation, the course of asthma in children improved.

Adenotonsillectomy (AT) is a procedure often prescribed in the United States for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.. OSA affects approximately 2-3% of American children. This condition is caused by inflammation and episodic upper airway obstruction during sleep..

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) states that the adenoids and palatine tonsils serve as the first line of defense as part of the immune system.. They counteract the penetration of bacteria and viruses through the respiratory tract..

To date, most cases of asthma can be controlled with specific anti-inflammatory drugs, mainly given in aerosol form.. Patients are also advised to avoid contact with allergenic substances that can trigger an asthma attack..

Recent studies suggest that it is beneficial to address some of the comorbid conditions in asthma, such as obesity and obstructive sleep apnea..

The authors of the latest paper say they set out to “test whether reversal of one of two inflammation-related diseases, obstructive sleep apnea, could lead to improvement in patients with asthma, another inflammatory disease.”.

Previous research tells us that OSA may exacerbate asthma in children. Therefore, scientists hoped that surgical treatment of OSA would provide an opportunity to reduce the drug burden and improve the quality of life of children with asthma..

Improvement after surgery.

Using MarketScan US statistics from 2003-2010, researchers selected 13,506 children with asthma who underwent adenotonsillectomy at various times.. For comparison, 27,012 asthmatics were taken who did not undergo this procedure..

Some facts about asthma:.

•Asthma is the third most common chronic disease in children.

• An estimated 7,100,000 children and adolescents under 18 years of age in the United States have asthma..

•In 2010, there were 640,000 pediatric asthma emergency calls in the US.

So, in the group of children who underwent adenotonsillectomy, the researchers recorded 2,243 hospitalizations before surgery and 1,566 hospitalizations during the same period after surgery.. This is a very significant improvement over the control group.. In addition, after adenotonsillectomy, the number of asthma attacks decreased, as well as the number of prescriptions prescribed by the doctor, that is, the drug load..

The authors acknowledge in their article that their study had some limitations.. Specifically, all of the children they included in the study had private health insurance.. Therefore, this sample may not represent the entire population..

“While randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm causation, our latest results provide a strong argument in favor of such studies,” the scientists write.. In their opinion, the observed improvement in the course of asthma after AT could be very useful for public health..

And a few more words about discoveries in this area. Recently, foreign publications reported that intrauterine exposure to household chemicals, phthalates, can increase the risk of asthma in children..

medbe. en.