The Utility of Adenotonsillectomy to Treat Snoring in Children: Acoustic Evaluation Using Smartphones

Lee, Sang Hoon; Kwon, Soon Bok; Lee, Ho Byung; Park, Geun Hyung; Mun, Mi Jin; Kim, Young Joong; Koo, Soo Kweon

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Adenotonsillectomy is a highly effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in children. In this study, to investigate the effects of adenotonsillectomy on snoring in children, we analyzed and compared snoring sounds recorded using a smartphone before and after adenotonsillectomy. We also determined whether it is possible to use acoustic analysis to monitor snoring in children.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
A total of 20 children diagnosed with snoring and had undergone adenotonsillectomy performed by the same surgeon were enrolled for the study. Snoring was recorded by patients' caregivers using smartphones before and after the surgery (mean of 8.5 days) and analyzed. Questionnaires were conducted by telephone survey at 3 months and 12 months after the surgery to determine snoring status.
RESULTS
Snoring completely ceased in 25% of patients and decreased in the remaining 75% during the immediate follow-up period (mean of 8.5 days; from 58.07±9.35 dB to 42.59±7.89 dB, p<0.001), and disappeared in all of the patients by 3 months after adenotonsillectomy. Snoring recurred only in one patient after 1 year. A frequency analysis offered no evident statistically significant changes during the immediate follow-up period, indicating that although snoring volume had decreased, no anatomical change had developed in the patient. Spectrography was useful in investigating the snoring patterns before and after adenotonsillectomy.
CONCLUSION
The results showed that acoustic analysis of snoring sounds obtained using a smartphone may be useful for monitoring snoring during follow-up after adenotonsillectomy in pediatric snoring patients.