Adenoidectomy May Not Be Effective to Reduce the Number of Hospital Visits for Sinusitis

The objective of this study was to compare post-operative (post-op) visits for sinusitis between adenoidectomy and non-adenoidectomy participants (control).

Using the national cohort study from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, we used 1:4 matching to select 2,593 adenoidectomy participants and 10,372 control participants. Post-op visits for sinusitis were measured from post-op 1 year through post-op 9 years. Equivalence testing was used. Margin of equivalence of difference was set as -0.5 to 0.5 in this study.

There were trivial differences between the two groups from post-op 1 to 2 years. However, there was no difference between the two groups from post-op 3 through 9 years. Visits for sinusitis gradually decreased in both groups. In the rare and frequent pre-operative sinusitis group, there were minor differences in both groups from post-op 1 to 2 years. In contrast, there were no differences between the two groups in rare and frequent pre-operative sinusitis groups from post-op 3 through 9 years. In the 0-4 years old group, there were minor differences between both groups from post-op 1 to 2 years. However, no differences in the number of visits for sinusitis were found between the two groups during follow up periods from post-op 3 through 9 years. Additionally, there were no differences between the two groups during the entire follow up period.

Adenoidectomy does not reduce post-op visits for sinusitis. Sinusitis decreased over time whether adenoidectomy was performed or not.