Abstract

In this work, Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) in children that may display a continuum from Simple Snoring (SS) down to marked obstructive sleep apnea and the otolaryngological risk factors of sleep-disordered breathing in otherwise healthy children were studied. A prospective study was conducted in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 on children aged 2-16 years, who were otherwise healthy, received in the ENT department of Almahawil Hospital for evaluation of snoring and breathing difficulties during sleep. We excluded any participants with Down syndrome, craniofacial anomalies, neuromuscular diseases (including cerebral palsy), obesity and laryngomalacia. All children underwent clinical assessment including; physical examination, lateral neck radiograph-x ray to assess the space behind the nose with standardized history collection. We couldn't use any sleep study like polysomnography because of unavailability in our country. We evaluated 326 children (boys: 176, girls: 150) from January 2018 to December 2020. The enrolled children were 120 (boys: 66, girls: 54) in 2018, 65(boys: 35, girls: 30) in 2019 and 141 (boys: 77, girls: 64) in 2020. The age range from 2 years to 16 years and I ordered them into 2-6, 7-10 and 11-16 years' groups. Results showed that 326 (53.9% boys, 46.1% girls) 258 (79.1%) of the total participants had adenotonsillar hypertrophy, 21(6.5%) had adenoid hypertrophy, 31(9.5%) had allergic rhinitis with or without turbinate hypertrophy and 16 (4.9%) had nasal septal deviation. Regarding the age group, 224 (68.7%) were in 2-6 years' group, 68 (20.8%) were in 7-10 years and 34 (10.5%) were in 11-16 years' group.

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