Introduction

This information tells you what to expect if your child has an operation to take out his or her adenoids. It explains how the operation is done, how it can help, what the risks are, and what to expect afterwards.

The benefits and risks described here are based on research studies and may be different in your hospital. You may want to talk about this with the doctors and nurses treating your child.

What happens during an adenoidectomy?

The operation takes about half an hour and your child probably won't have to spend a night in hospital.

Your child will be given a general anaesthetic so he or she will be asleep during the operation.

To take out your child's adenoids, a support is put under their shoulders so that their head is tipped back a little. A breathing tube is put into their mouth. Then their mouth is held wide open using a surgical instrument so that the surgeon can reach your child's adenoids through their mouth. The surgeon uses their finger to feel how large your child's adenoids are, then scrapes them out using a tool that's like a spoon with one sharp edge. It only takes a few minutes. The bleeding is then stopped by pressing a gauze pad against the back of your child's nose where their adenoids used to be. This takes about five minutes. Your child will not need any stitches.^[5][6] Some surgeons use a heated device to burn away the adenoids, instead of cutting them out.

If your child is also having grommets put in their ears, a tiny cut (two or three millimetres long) is made in their eardrum, fluid is drained away, and the grommet is put through the opening. Different types of grommets are used but most are plastic, a few millimetres long and shaped like a dumbbell. To learn more, see Grommets

In the past, surgeons removed children's tonsils at the same time as their adenoids. But there is no evidence that taking children's tonsils out helps glue ear. These days, children's tonsils are not usually taken out unless the tonsils keep getting infected, an infection lasts a very long time, the tonsils stop the child from swallowing easily, or the child has breathing problems.^[2][3]