Objective: To determine if outpatient tailored perioperative management has the same complication rate as that previously published for sickle cell disease (SCD) children who undergo adenotonsillectomy.
Study design and setting: Retrospective chart review of SCD children who underwent tonsillectomy with outcome measures of perioperative management and postsurgical complications.
Results: Of 41 patients, 61% were monitored for <24 hours with the average length of stay being 2 days (range, 1 to 10). Postoperative complications were noted in 9 (22%) patients, including 8 (20%) with hypoxia, 4 (10%) fever, 3 (8%) acute chest syndrome, and 1 (2.4%) airway fire, which are similar to the published literature.
Conclusions: Current literature supports extensive perioperative management with hospital stays averaging 3 to 5 days. These data demonstrate that the majority of these patients can be managed with <24-hour hospitalization stays with similar complication rates as previously described in the literature.
Significance: This study establishes a new paradigm for perioperative management of SCD children who undergo adenotonsillectomy.
Ebm rating: C-4.