The effect of adenotonsillectomy on neurocognitive functioning in children with upper airway obstruction

多达3%的儿童在睡眠中受到上呼吸道阻塞的影响，而且常常未被发现。如果严重的话，会导致生长衰竭、发育迟缓和心力衰竭。然而，关于轻度上气道阻塞对儿童的影响的信息很少，但最近的研究表明，轻度上气道阻塞的儿童也可能出现学习成绩下降的情况。尤其是，受影响最大的领域似乎是智力、记忆力、行为和注意力。目前尚不清楚这些缺陷是由于睡眠中断还是夜间氧气水平降低。上呼吸道阻塞的治疗是切除腺样体和扁桃体，然而，这是否能提高儿童的智力尚不清楚。这项研究旨在成为第一个批判性地评估睡眠时上呼吸道阻塞对儿童智力、记忆、行为和注意力能力的影响，以及切除儿童扁桃体和腺样体所带来的改善的研究之一。

Upper airway obstruction during sleep affects up to 3% of all children and is very frequently unrecognised. If severe it causes growth failure, developmental delay and heart failure. However, there is little information on the effects of less severe degrees of upper airway obstruction in children but recent work suggests that reduced academic performance may also be present in children with relatively mild degrees of upper airway obstruction. In particular, the areas most affected appear to be intelligence, memory, behaviour and attentional capacity . Currently it is unclear whether these deficits are due to sleep disruption or reduced nocturnal oxygen levels. The treatment of upper airway obstruction is the removal of adenoids and tonsils, however, it is unknown whether or not this improves the child's intellectual capacity. This study aims to be one of the first to critically evaluate the impact of upper airway obstruction during sleep on children's intelligence, memory, behaviour and attentional capacity, and the improvements wrought by the removal of the child's tonsils and adenoids.