A radiological study of the adenoid in normal children

In this study the radiology of the adenoid is compared in two groups of children: those selected for adenoidectomy and those with a history of head injury who had had a lateral radiograph of the skull. The size of the adenoid was found to be the same in both groups though the nasopharyngeal airway was found to be significantly smaller in the children selected for adenoidectomy. On the basis of measurements in the normal children a lower limit of normal is suggested for the width of the nasopharyngeal airway, this is 2 mm in the case of children below the age of 70 months and 3 mm in the case of children over 70 months old. Only 17% of the children selected for adenoidectomy have abnormally narrow nasopharyngeal airways.