Patients
Patients or their parents who were
unwilling to accept the airway management process or patients who were
unable to tolerate the lung function test were excluded. Patients with
restrictive
ventilatory dysfunction (forced vital capacity<80% predicted,
forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity≥0.70) were
excluded because atomization therapy was not effective in improving
restrictive ventilatory dysfunction. Finally, a total of 483 children
with OSA (319 males and 164 females; age range, 6 y to 14 y) who
underwent adenotonsillectomy were included in the retrospective study.
All the children had a history of diverse symptoms associated with OSA.
They received standardized polysomnography (PSG) after admission. An
apnea hyponea index (AHI) ≥ 2 events/hour or an obstructive apnea index
(OAI)≥1 event/hour was defined as a diagnostic criterion of
OSA.[12]Otolaryngologists evaluated the indication for adenoidectomy or
tonsillectomy according to the degree of adenoid and tonsillar
hypertrophy in children with OSA.[13,14]