Vegetations: symptoms and treatment

Vegetations are a growth of lymphoid tissue that appears at the back of the nose in an area called the rhinopharynx and are also known as adenoid hypertrophy or adenoids. It is a normal tissue that appears, above all, in the infant; the small child and that as it grows, the tissue is involuted, that is to say, it decreases in size because the need of use for the human body’s defenses is reduced.

What are its causes?

It is a normal tissue that occurs naturally in the body, however, there are cases in which hypertrophy occurs. This means that the tissue has grown too much. This can be caused by frequent nose infections called “rhinopharyngitis”, by colds, by an immaturity of the airway or by immune tissue growths, causes that should be studied further.

One of the peculiarities of vegetations is that they often cause shortness of breath.

It is not always easy to identify them, so it is advisable to pay attention to the following symptoms:

  • Snoring.
  • Apnea.
  • Rhinorrhea (nasal mucus).
  • Difficulty hearing that can cause otitis as a result of accumulating fluid in the ear because these vegetations are very large and do not allow the middle ear to drain.

Until recently it was very common to remove the adenoids when there was an exaggerated adenoid hypertrophy. However, these interventions are no longer so frequent and nowadays other safer procedures are used.

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How to treat vegetations?

It is important to follow protocols that dictate how and what steps to take. European guidelines advise treating the infection or acute inflammation with regular medication usually given by the pediatrician and when episodes of adenoid inflammation recur very frequently, surgery. At least having 2-3 episodes in a period of 3 months is considered recurrent and that is when surgery is considered.

The technique used for this intervention called adenoidectomy is a curettage. This means that the rhinopharynx is scraped, all the tissue is removed and sent for analysis to make sure there is nothing wrong with it and it is left as it is. There are other techniques, but there is no one that offers superior results over another.

Neither laser, nor radiofrequency, nor any other type of surgery. The most common is to opt for the technique in which the surgeon feels more convinced.

Interpreting the results

It is understood that the intervention has been successful when the patient notices improvement of nasal symptoms. Especially in terms of nasal breathing, snoring breathing, episodes of otitis or accumulation of fluid in the ears.