Clinical guideline for diagnosis and surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in patients from two to eight years old

Introduction and objective: The adenotonsillar hypertrophy is the fundamental cause of childhood obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a frequent pathology that can cause a series of important complications. In certain circumstances, it can be diagnosed without the need of complex tests and treated effectively, with adenotonsillectomy being the choice; since, with the current resources, assuming all the recommendations of the main guidelines are impractical, the number of children that would require referral for diagnostic polysomnography (PSG) and adenotonsillectomy would exceed our capacity. Limiting the guidelines to available means would significantly ignore the health repercussions of childhood OSA, making it difficult to recognize children at risk, as well as being able to offer adequate treatment. Our objective is to establish the recommendations based on the best available scientific evidence to increase, in an efficient way, the diagnosis of pediatric OSAS and to establish the adequate surgical recomendation as well as the safety in the perioperative procedure. Sections: Review of the bibliography of national and international guidelines on the management of childhood OSAS and assessment of own experience derived from clinical practice and prospective follow-up studies of operated patients. Summary of the evidence on childhood OSAS. Resolution of disagreements between scientific evidence and current clinical practice with proposals to minimize them. Recommendations for the diagnostic procedure and the surgical procedure. Perioperative management scheme and post-surgical follow-up. Conclusions: The application of the suggested changes regarding the management of children with suspected OSAS will allow: 1) greater prominence in the process of Primary and Secondary Care provided by general pediatricians to consider adenotonsillectomy; 2) the widespread use of specific questionnaires for the detection of OSAS, nocturnal oximetry and video recording during sleep as assessment tools; and 3) greater availability of complex sleep studies (PSG) to meet international standards for certain conditions.