Adenoidectomy in South Africa

• Adenoids are part of the immune system, which helps fight infection and protects the body from bacteria and viruses.
• Adenoids are only present in children. They start to grow from birth and are biggest when your child is approximately three to five years old.
• They are only found in kids. They begin to grow from birth and are largest when your child is roughly 3 to 5 to years of age.
• But by age seven to eight they start to shrink and by the late teens, are barely visible. By adulthood, the adenoids will have disappeared completely.
• However, by age 7 to 8 they begin to reduce in size and by the late teens, are hardly noticeable. By adulthood, the adenoids will have vanished totally.

• It might be essential to remove the adenoids if they get inflamed or enlarged because of:
• breathing issues, like frequently breathing through their mouth or shortness of breath
• difficulty sleeping, especially if breathing issues result in sleep apnea and snoring
• persistent or recurrent issues with the ears, like middle ear infections or glue ear
• Chronic or recurrent sinusitis, resulting in symptoms like nasal-sounding speech, a continuously runny nose and facial pain

Swollen adenoids block the airways and can cause the following symptoms:
• frequent ear infections
• sore throat
• difficulty swallowing
• difficulty breathing through the nose
• habitual mouth breathing
• obstructive sleep apnea, which involves periodic lapses in breathing during sleep

Swollen adenoids obstruct the breathing passages and can bring about the following symptoms :
• recurrent ear infections
• sore throat
• difficulty ingesting
• difficulty breathing through the nose
• regular mouth breathing
• obstructive sleep apnea that entails periodic lapses in breathing while sleeping

• Repeated middle ear infections due to swollen adenoids and clogged Eustachian tubes have serious implications, such as hearing loss, which can also lead to speech problems.
• Recurring middle ear infections because of inflamed adenoids and blocked Eustachian tubes have severe consequences, like hearing loss that may as well cause speech issues.

Your child’s physician might suggest an adenoid removal if your child has persistent ear or throat infections that:

• do not respond to antibiotic treatments
• happen over five or eight times annually
• hinder your child’s education because of regular absences

Preparing for an Adenoidectomy

• The throat and mouth bleed more readily compared to other parts of the body, so your doctor might ask for a blood test to find out whether your child’s blood clots properly and if their red and white blood count is normal. Preoperative blood tests might help your child’s doctor make sure that there will not be too much bleeding during and after the surgery.
• In the week before surgery, don’t give your child any medicine that can affect blood clotting, such as ibuprofen or aspirin. You may use acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain. If you’re in doubt about which medicines are appropriate, talk with your doctor.
• The day before surgery, your child should have nothing to eat or drink after midnight. This includes water. If the doctor prescribes medicine to be taken before the surgery, give it to your child with a small sip of water.