Purpose: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) describes an irregular night-time breathing pattern that is present in approximately 1.8% of children and can have a negative impact on quality of life. The use of antibiotics postoperatively is controversial. They are commonly prescribed; however, they can also be associated with side effects and resistance. This study explores the role of antibiotics in the post-operative management of children with OSA in a cohort of children.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children undergoing surgery for OSA or sleep disordered breathing (SDB) at a tertiary paediatric ENT referral centre from November 2018 to November 2019.
Results: This study identified 382 children who had undergone surgical treatment for OSA or sleep disordered breathing (SDB); 319 underwent adenotonsillectomy, 53 adenoidectomy and 10 tonsillectomies. Antibiotics were given post-operatively to 158 (41%) patients and 18 (11%) of these patients presented to hospital with post-operative complications. A higher number of patients re-presented to hospital from the group who did not receive antibiotics (p = 0.982). Bleeding (p = 0.886) and infection (p = 0.823) were also more common in those children who did not receive antibiotics.
Conclusion: Antibiotics led to fewer complications and re-presentations to hospital in children undergoing operative management of OSA; however, this trend was not found to be statistically significant.
Keywords: Adenotonsillectomy; Analgesia; Antibiotics; OSA; Post-operative; SDB.
© 2021. Crown.