Clinical description of adenoids

Author: Dr. İsmayıl İ. Category: Nose

Published:  2022 - 29 - Nov

1 - Difficulty in nasal breathing. The child, depending on the degree of adenoids, either periodically or constantly does not breathe through the nose. With inflammation of the adenoids (adenoiditis), nasal congestion is accompanied by mucous or purulent discharge (thick yellow or green). Often a child walks with his mouth open during the day and sleeps with his mouth open, while sniffing or snoring is heard during sleep. In the morning, a frequent complaint is a cough, usually wet, strong, persistent, which is often regarded as signs of tracheitis or bronchitis. In fact, this is a reaction of the respiratory mucosa to the flow of mucus down from the nasopharynx, which has accumulated there during the night.

2 - Hearing loss is a common complaint with adenoids, especially with the second and third degrees of enlargement of the nasopharyngeal tonsils. The child often asks again, notes heaviness in the ears, a feeling that it is as if a helmet is on his head.

3 - Pain in the throat, which may be the result of mucus flowing down from the side of the nasopharynx and, as a result, inflammation of the oropharyngeal mucosa. Pain can manifest as intermittent or persistent sore throat against the background of difficulty in nasal breathing and nasal discharge.

4 - Typical for adenoids - frequent inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, such as rhinitis, sinusitis, frontal sinusitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, tracheitis, bronchitis and others. The clinical picture will be formed in each case from the symptoms of the corresponding diseases.

5 - Inflammation of the middle ear is a common sign of the presence of adenoids. In children, in the vast majority of cases, the cause of otitis media is precisely the growth of the nasopharyngeal lymphoid tissue. Clinically, it is pain in the ears or in one ear, hearing loss, often (often due to the reactivity of the body in children) purulent discharge from the ear, which is evidence of perforation of the eardrum.

6 - In children with adenoids (in the second and third degrees), speech is impaired, it is more nasal, diction is often observed, such patients find it difficult to learn to pronounce individual words, letters. It comes to the point that the help of a speech therapist is necessary.

7 - Violation of nasal breathing cannot but affect the deterioration in the supply of oxygen to internal organs and the brain. All this is manifested by a decrease in work capacity, poor performance at school, belated, in comparison with peers, physical development.