ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Comparison of flexible nasopharyngoscopy with plain radiograph in the assessment of children with adenoid hypertrophy

Auwal Adamu¹, Yasir Nuhu Jibril², Muhammad Ghazali Hasheem³, Hamisu Abdullahi³, Abubakar Danjuma Salisu³, Onyekwere George B Nwaorgu^4
1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University/Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, Nigeria ²Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria ³ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital/Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria ⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University College Hospital Ibadan/College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Auwal Adamu
Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University/Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi Nigeria

Source of support: None
Conflict of Interest: None

Background: Obstructive adenoid hypertrophy is one of the commonest disorder seen in paediatric otorhinolaryngology clinics. It has a wide range of complications that can lead to cardiopulmonary and developmental problems; hence, early diagnosis and treatment are paramount in preventing the complications. Several modalities for the assessment of adenoid hypertrophy have been described in the literature, of which plain radiograph and flexible nasopharyngoscopy are the most popular. In this study, traditional method of evaluating adenoid hypertrophy (plain radiograph) has been compared with newer flexible nasopharyngoscopy.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of randomly selected children with clinical diagnosis of obstructive adenoid disease. All eligible participants underwent clinical examinations, flexible nasopharyngoscopy and postnasal space X-ray. The findings were compared using the chi-square test and Pearson’s correlation test.

Results: The age of the participants ranged between 2 and 10 years with mean of 4.5?±?2.5 years. There were 79 (56.4%) males and 61 (43.6%) females. The adenoid hypertrophy observed using flexible nasopharyngoscopy among the participants ranged between 20 and 90% with mean of 67.4?±?15.4%. The adenoid enlargement measured using adenoidal–nasopharyngeal ratio on plain radiograph ranged between 0.40 and 0.96 with mean of 0.7?±?0.09. The Pearson’s correlation test revealed strong correlation between flexible nasopharyngoscopy and plain radiograph (r = 0.858, P = .000), and there was statistically significant association between the two methods (?2 = 148.8, P = .000).

Conclusion: There was a strong correlation between flexible nasopharyngoscopy and plain radiograph of the postnasal space in the assessment of obstructive adenoid disease in children.