Pilot Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Tonsil and Adenoidectomy (T+A) in Overweight Children and Adolescents

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States with roughly 20% of American children being overweight and has serious consequences such as sleep apnea.Additionally, obesity is known to result in the earlier onset of puberty . Thus, it can be expected that obese children take-on adult characteristics at an earlier chronologic age than their non-obese counterparts. Current guidelines recommend adenotonsillectomy (T+A) as primary and effective therapy for sleep apnea resulting in polysomnographic resolution in 75-100% of patients. Small studies have shown that T+A relieves symptoms in obese children but surgical intervention has been less efficacious in adults. We hypothesize that T+A may be less efficacious in obese adolescents because of earlier onset of puberty imparting more adult characteristics. We further hypothesize that the efficacy of T+A will correlate more closely with Tanner staging than with chronologic age because of the earlier onset of sexual maturation associated with obesity.