Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea With Personalized Surgery in Children With Small Tonsils
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a novel personalized surgical approach to the standard AT in children with small tonsils (ST). This will be accomplished by randomizing children with ST and OSA to one of these two treatments and comparing outcomes after 6 months. It is the investigators' central hypothesis that a personalized drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE)-directed surgical approach that uses existing procedures to address the specific fixed and dynamic anatomic features causing obstruction (ie, anatomic endotypes) in each child with ST will perform better than the currently recommended standard first line approach of AT. This novel approach may improve OSA outcomes and reduce the burden of unnecessary AT or secondary surgery for persistent OSA after an ineffective AT. To test this hypothesis, the investigators propose to study children aged 2-17 years with small tonsils and OSA.
Conditions
- Otolaryngological Disease
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Between 2 Years and 17 Years
- Eligible Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Criteria
To be in the study:
- Child has a diagnosis of moderate to severe OSA diagnosed by PSG (oAHI ≥ 5).
- Child age is 2.00 to 17.99 years of age.
- Child has small tonsils (Brodsky 1+ or 2+) noted during routine physical exam.
- Caregiver can provide signed and dated consent and is 18 years of age or older at
the time of consent.
- Caregiver can speak, read, and write in English or Spanish.
- Caregiver is primary caretaker of the child.
- Child is not expecting their own child.
- Child is eligible for surgical treatment
Cannot be in the study if:
- Child has history of previous tonsillectomy, tonsillotomy, or partial tonsillectomy.
- Child has any contraindication to surgery (e.g. bleeding disorders).
- Child has significant cardiopulmonary comorbidity besides OSA requiring supplemental
oxygen, subglottic or tracheal stenosis, tracheostomy dependence.
- Child has a genetic abnormality, Down syndrome, neuromuscular disorder, craniofacial
anomaly.
- Caregiver is unwilling or unable to comply with study procedures.
- Child is or plans to become a parent themselves.
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Intervention Model Description
- Participants will be recruited from pediatric otolaryngology clinics. The study will be introduced to caregivers of children with small tonsils and a history of sleep disordered breathing/OSA who are referred for surgery and meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria noted. If current or recent PSG testing demonstrates OSA, they will be invited to participate. Randomization will be done. Patients will be randomized to either the personalized DISE-directed surgery or the standard AT after collection of baseline measures and pre-op PSG. Allocation will be made by using a computer-generated randomization scheme. Caregivers will be advised of the outcomes and risks of different surgical procedures included in DISE-directed surgery and informed consent will be obtained. All patients will be planned for overnight observation to monitor for safety and perioperative complications.
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- Single (Outcomes Assessor)
- Masking Description
- It is not practical or feasible to maintain blinding among the surgeons performing the procedures or the clinical staff caring for patients in the perioperative setting. Given this, it is unlikely that blinding could be maintained among parents or caregivers of patients, therefore there will be no attempt to blind caregivers to the treatment assignment. However, the sleep medicine collaborators who will be reviewing and scoring postoperative PSGs will be instructed not to review the medical record so as to ensure blinding to treatment assignment.
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Experimental Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy |
DISE will be performed at the time of surgery under the same sedation. The decision on specific surgical approach will be made at that time based on DISE findings. Prior to intubation, patients will be sedated with either a propofol infusion or a combination of ketamine and dexmedetomidine. Once adequate sedation is achieved, endoscopy will be performed using a flexible endoscope advanced through the nose. The nasal airway will be evaluated on both sides, then the endoscope will be advanced into the pharynx. The degree of obstruction is scored on a 3-point rating scale. Participants randomized to DISE-directed surgery will undergo one or more potential procedures in a single surgery. Caregivers will be consented for all possible procedures with the understanding that only those needed based on DISE will be performed. Importantly, these procedures are all established treatments with published outcomes data. |
|
|
Active Comparator Adenotonsillectomy |
Adenotonsillar hypertrophy is the most common risk factor for OSA in children, and adenotonsillectomy (AT) is the first line treatment. An adenotonsillectomy is an operation to remove both the adenoids and tonsils. |
|
Recruiting Locations
Portland, Oregon 97239
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Oregon Health and Science University
Detailed Description
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in children with an estimated prevalence of 1-6%. Untreated pediatric OSA is associated with hypertension, autonomic dysfunction, attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder, neurocognitive deficits, poor school performance, poor quality of life, and a >200% increase in health care utilization compared to controls. Adenotonsillar hypertrophy is the primary risk factor for pediatric OSA, and adenotonsillectomy (AT) is the recommended first line treatment. However, the prevalence of persistent OSA after AT has been reported to be at least 20% among children with large tonsils, indicating that AT may not be the optimal intervention in all cases. Although the prevalence of small tonsils in children with OSA symptoms is up to 70%, there is currently no clear evidence on the outcome of AT in children with small tonsils. It has been shown that clinic assessments of tonsil size do not correlate with OSA severity or response to AT, leaving confusion about how best to treat OSA in children with small tonsils. This knowledge gap represents an opportunity to apply a personalized treatment approach and improve outcomes. DISE entails passage of a flexible endoscope through the nose into the pharynx and enables direct observation of the sites and patterns of upper airway obstruction during sedated sleep. DISE was developed to guide surgical decisions in adult OSA, and in recent years has also been used to design personalized surgical interventions in children. To help standardize DISE assessments, the investigators previously developed and validated the DISE Rating Scale in children based on ordinal ratings of maximal airway obstruction (none, partial, complete) at six anatomic sites from the nose to the larynx. The investigators also demonstrated that DISE ratings of adenotonsillar obstruction during sedated sleep are strongly associated with both OSA severity and response to AT, unlike clinic assessments of tonsil size. The investigators' preliminary data and other published studies have identified a high prevalence of non-adenotonsillar obstruction that can occur at the nose, palate, base of tongue, and larynx. Surgery that is tailored to the specific anatomic sites of obstruction observed during DISE may improve pediatric OSA outcomes, but existing studies are small, uncontrolled case series in heterogeneous study populations. There are no trials directly comparing AT and DISE-directed surgery in the common scenario of surgically naïve children with small tonsils. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a novel personalized surgical approach to the standard AT in children with small tonsils (ST). This will be accomplished by randomizing children with ST and OSA to one of these two treatments and comparing outcomes after 6 months. It is the investigators' central hypothesis that a personalized drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE)-directed surgical approach that uses existing procedures to address the specific fixed and dynamic anatomic features causing obstruction (i.e., anatomic endotypes) in each child with ST will perform better than the currently recommended standard first line approach of AT. This novel approach may improve OSA outcomes and reduce the burden of unnecessary AT or secondary surgery for persistent OSA after an ineffective AT. To test this hypothesis, the investigators propose to study children aged 2-17 years with small tonsils and OSA.