What Is Adenoiditis? Know About Symptoms And Treatment

The lymphatic tissue masses that aid the body in combatting infection are called adenoids. And the inflammation of this adenoid tissue results in adenoiditis. This inflammation of the adenoid tissue is commonly caused due to infection, allergies, or irritation from stomach acid.

According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, adenoiditis is typically involved in a disease process like adenotonsillitis, pharyngitis, rhinosinusitis, or laryngopharyngeal reflux. Therefore, adenoiditis rarely occurs on its own. It must be noted that many complications of adenoid disease are reportedly caused due to adenoid hypertrophy, which can be a result of continuous irritation.

The report claimed that adenoiditis can be classified as both acute and chronic. Wondering how to identify if the condition is acute or chronic?

Symptoms

Well, witnessing the symptoms should be the foremost step. The report added that acute adenoiditis, which occurs after the infection in the upper respiratory tract (URI), exhibits symptoms like rhinorrhea, post-nasal drip, snoring, fever, nasal obstruction, and halitosis. It must be noted that the chronic condition exhibits almost the same symptoms but it last only 90 days and is reportedly caused by polymicrobial infections and biofilm formation. Now physical findings of the condition include post-nasal drip, purulent rhinorrhea, nasal obstruction, snoring, mouth breathing, fever, and halitosis.

Watch out for these conditions:

The patient, who is struggling with adenoiditis, may also have a history of recurrent acute otitis media, chronic nasal obstruction with mouth-breathing, sleep-disordered breathing/obstructive sleep apnea, or chronic otitis media.

Clinical Evaluation

Clinical examination results are used to make the diagnosis of acute adenoiditis based on:

1. Fever
2. Purulent rhinorrhea
3. Possible concurrent acute otitis media
4. Nasal obstruction
5. Throat pain
6. Post-nasal drip
7. Halitosis

A laryngeal mirror or nasal endoscope may be used to try and visually assess the adenoids. The laboratory testing that is involved in the condition are:

1. Rapid Strep test
2. Cultures
3. Allergy testing

Treatments that are involved in adenoiditis are:

1. Antibiotic treatment: If symptoms like high fever, and discharge from nose and throat continue, then first-line management is antibiotics that will cover the most common pathogens.
2. Allergy treatment: If adenoiditis is considered secondary to environmental allergies then the patient can also be given a trial of nasal steroid sprays, oral steroids, and oral antihistamines, just to see if this gives relief from the symptoms.
3. Reflux treatment: This includes treating the condition with lifestyle and diet modification or proton pump inhibitors may provide sufficient relief from the symptoms.

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