Adenoidectomy may decrease the need for a third set of tympanostomy tubes in children

To determine whether removing or retaining adenoids at the time of placement of a second set of ear tubes impacts the need for a third set of ear tubes later in childhood.

Single-institution retrospective case series.

Tertiary academic university hospital.

We identified pediatric subjects who had undergone a second ear tube placement between 1/1/17 and 9/1/19. Subjects were stratified into two groups: 1) adenoids removed at time of second tympanostomy tube insertion (TT+A) and 2) adenoids retained at time of second tympanostomy tube insertion (TT-A). A subset of children less than age 4 was also studied independently. The primary outcome was number of patients requiring a third set of tympanostomy tubes.

A total of 136 subjects met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among children less than 4 years of age (n = 99), the incidence of requiring a third set of tubes was significantly lower in the TT+A group <4 (12.8%; 6/47) compared to the TT-A group <4 (44.2%; 23/52) (p = 0.0008) with an odds ratio of 0.18 (95%CI 0.067-0.51) and number needed to treat of 3.2.

Performing adenoidectomy in children less than 4 years of age at the second tympanostomy procedure was associated with a reduced incidence of requiring a third set of ear tubes.