Clin Otolaryngol. 2024 Feb 28. doi: 10.1111/coa.14148. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Paediatric feeding difficulties are common, affecting up to 25% of otherwise healthy children, symptoms include food refusal, gagging, choking, and excessive mealtime duration. These symptoms are commonly described in pre-operative discussions about tonsillectomy. This prospective study explores the impact of tonsillectomy on paediatric feeding difficulties.
DESIGN: This prospective cohort study invited caregivers of children undergoing tonsillectomy to complete a PediEAT questionnaire about their children’s feeding behaviours, pre and post-operatively. The study was completed in two phases with 9 questions administered in phase 1 and three additional questions added for phase 2. A free text comments box was also provided. Responses were graded from 0 to 5, where 0 is ‘never a problem’ and 5 is ‘always a problem’ with eating behaviours.
SETTING: The study was conducted at our institution, a tertiary paediatric ENT unit.
PARTICIPANTS: Children aged between 6 months – 7 years undergoing tonsillectomy for any indication were invited to participate.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes to the Pedi-EAT scores pre and post operatively were the main outcome measure.
RESULTS: 102 participants were recruited between January 2020 and January 2022. The mean age of participants was 4.1 years, 87% had a concurrent adenoidectomy. The mean time to completion of post-operative questionnaire was 23 weeks after surgery. 9 of the 12 questions showed a statistically significant improvement in post-operative scores using a paired student t-test (p < 0.05). The most significant improvements related to ‘gets tired from eating and is not able to finish’ (1.49 pre-op, 0.91 post op, p < 0.01) and ‘eats food that needs to be chewed’ (1.4 pre-op, 0.72 post-op, p < 0.01). 13% of participants only underwent tonsillectomy and this group also showed a statistically significant improvement in fatigue during eating (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: Symptoms of fatigue during eating and avoidance of food requiring mastication are most likely to improve following tonsillectomy in children.
PMID:38415339 | DOI:10.1111/coa.14148
