The report, which was recently published in the journal Pediatrics, is based on a study of more than 800 kids by Stanford University researchers. The Stanford team found that those kids who underwent a tonsillectomy saw their weight rise roughly 6 per cent over an 18-month period. Those same children saw their Body Mass Index (or BMI) increase an average of 8 per cent over that same period.
Dr. Eliot Katz, a Stanford University professor and the study’s lead researcher, says the report shows parents and physicians need to approach tonsillectomy in a new way.
“You can’t just treat the sleep apnea,” Katz said. “You have to have nutrition and lifestyle counseling, too.” Katz added that, rather ironically, obesity is a risk factor for sleep apnea.
But not all physicians see the weight gain following tonsillectomy as a point of serious concern. Dr. Michael Rothschild, a professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, says it could just be that children suffering from sleep apnea are underweight prior to undergoing a tonsillectomy.
“One possible interpretation of this clinical observation has been that some children with significant nighttime breathing issues — like sleep apnea — actually are underweight due to the increased work of breathing, or due to obstructive food aversions related to the size of the tonsils,” Rothschild said.
