What is the relationship between the size of the adenoids and nasal obstruction? A systematic review.

Objective: adenoidectomy is one of the most common surgical procedure in pediatric otolaryngology practice. Clinical guidelines (such as the Spanish or American) suggest adenoidectomy when the enlargement of the adenoids is associated with nasal obstruction. Nasal endoscopy and cephalograms are adequate methods to estimate the size of the adenoids. However, they do not measure nasal patency. This systematic review is designed with the objective of exploring the relationship between adenoid size and nasal ventilation through rhinomanometry.

Review Methods: 3 authors members of the YO-IFOS rhinology study group independently analyzed the data sources (Pubmed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, SciELO) for papers assessing both nasal resistance and/or nasal airflow in rhinomanometry and adenoid size by any method (endoscopy, cephalogram, direct examination).

Results: A total of 10 studies with a total population of 969 participants met the inclusion criteria. 5 authors explored the size of the adenoids through endoscopy. 4 authors explored the adenoids through lateral cephalograms. Finally, a further 2 authors explored adenoid size studying the resected tissue. Five studies explored the correlation between adenoid size and nasal resistance in rhinomanometry, which ranged from 0.20 to 0.84. Finally, 5 studies used nasal decongestant. It was found higher sensitivity and specificity, a higher area under the curve for the receiver operating characteristic curve, and higher correlation with adenoid size for rhinomanometry under nasal decongestion.

Conclusion: Up to now, there is no ideal diagnostic method for adenoid hypertrophy. Therefore, it seems prudent to use a combination of all currently available tools, as they provide complementary, rather than supplementary information. Available evidence suggests that rhinomanometry combined with nasal decongestant could help to elucidate the existence of nasal obstruction in intermediate cases of adenoid hypertrophy, as well as throw light on other possible causes for nasal obstruction, mainly turbinate hypertrophy.