LAUSR

Adenotonsillectomy (AT) is the most common surgical treatment for pediatric obstructive-sleep-apnea (OSA) with fair effectiveness. There are still controversies about the improvement of neurocognitive function after AT. This study investigates the changes of neurocognitive function after AT in preschool and school age children with OSA, including intelligence and attention, and explore the inconsistent improvements by comparing different evaluation tools. 130 children with pediatric OSA were recruited, including 30 preschool and 100 school-age children. 125 participants underwent clinical evaluation, including polysomnography (PSG), before and 1-year after AT. Preschool children received the Wechsler-Preschool-and-Primary-Scale-of-Intelligence (the revised and IV edition, WPPSI-R and WPPSI-IV) and the Conners’-Kiddie-Continuous-Performance-Test (K-CPT) while school-age children received the Wechsler-Intelligence-Scale-for-Children (the 3rd and 4th edition, WISC-III and WISC-IV), and the Conners’-continuous-performance-test-II (CPT-II), before and 1-year after AT. Questionnaires including the Obstructive-Sleep-Apnea-Questionaire-18 (OSA-18) and Child-Behavior-Checklist (CBCL) were also used. The t-test and chi-square test analysis was used to compare data between preschool and school-age children, including PSG, CPT variables, intelligence variables, OSA-18 and CBCL before and after AT, as well as group differences in changes. Correlation analysis of CPT variables were performed by using the Pearson-Correlation to investigate factors related to treatment response. No significant group difference was found except age (p=0.000) and less male gender in preschool children (p=0.049). 21.7% of preschool children had language delay, and more than 80% of all children had allergic rhinitis or high narrow palate. After AT, both groups had significant improvement in PSG and OSA-18. No significant change was found by WPPSI-IV in the preschool children and WISC-IV in the school-age children, but significant improvements were found in preschool children and school-age children by WPPSI-R and WISC-III. There were also significant improvements of CPT-II in school-age children, and the Hit-reaction-time-standard-deviation positively correlates with the improvement in PSG. Besides the improvement of sleep apnea and subjective improvements of emotion and behavior, AT can be beneficial in the neurocognitive function of preschool and school-age children with OSA, including intelligence and attention. Some tools may not be sensitive enough to detect the improvement in neurocognitive function, and selection of proper evaluation tools can be important in study design.