Role of endoscopic nasal examination in reduction of nasopharyngeal adenoid recurrence rates

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate the benefit of endoscopic examination after adenoidectomy in detecting residual adenoid tissue that would need completion surgery, in ultimate aim to reduce rates of adenoid recurrence. Methods A total of 312 children were included in the study conducted at Ain-Shams University Hospital from January till December 2007, following routine adenoidectomy, 118 had a nasal and nasopharyngeal rigid fiberoptic examination and 194 did not, randomly according to the surgical subunit that performed the surgery. Patients were followed up for a minimum of 2 years for recurrence of symptoms of adenoid enlargement. Results Endoscopic examination revealed that 14.5% of patients undergoing adenoidectomy had residual adenoid tissue that needed further removal, of these the most common site was at the lateral walls of the nasopharynx (47%). The recurrence rate of adenoid hypertrophy needing re-surgery with endoscopic examination (0.85%) approaches that of the lowest recorded (0.5%) with more expensive and costly methods, and statistically significant lower than rates when endoscopy is not performed (5.6%). Additional time needed for such examination was negligible in terms of cost–benefit relationship. Conclusion Rigid fiberoptic endoscopy of the posterior choana and nasopharynx at the end of adenoidectomy provides the benefit of detecting unremoved adenoid tissue without significantly extra cost, time, nor expertise, and helps reduce significantly the rates of recurrence of adenoid enlargement, which might be attributed to residual “missed” adenoid tissue.