Removing Adenoids to Drain Fluid Behind the Ears

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill and today we're going to be talking about removing adenoids to drain fluid behind the ears. This is a procedure called, in medicine, an adenoidectomy. A lot of people don't know where their adenoids are because you really can't see them. If you're able to sort of look inside the mouth and then up the airway toward the ears, you'd see these glands that have tissue that help you fight infection. They're similar to the tonsils in that way. Now, with repeated infections or irritation from allergies or even gastrointestinal reflux, the adenoids can enlarge somewhat. And, as they enlarge, it's possible for them to block off drainage of fluid out of the ears. Normally, the fluid drains from the middle ear down into the nose, utilizing these tubes called Eustachian tubes. But as the adenoids grow, they can occlude some of the drainage that occurs. When fluid collects in the middle ear, there's the possibility that it'll become infected and cause an ear infection. We call that acute otitis media. Now, it's very normal for children to have a series of ear infections when they're young, especially in the toddler years starting as early as four to six months and usually peaking out by age two and then slowing down. But when children have more than three otitis media episodes within a three month period or more than six within a year, people think about doing something to help get that fluid out of the ears. The simplest thing is to put ventilating tubes in the tympanic membrane to help fluid come out. But, if you need two sets of tubes, data shows that pulling out the adenoids at the same time may reduce the number of repeat acute otitis media. So, usually, unless the ear, nose and throat surgeon during the operation sees an obvious blockage with the first set of ear tubes, he'll leave the adenoids in. But, in many cases, unless the adenoids are quite small, they'll come out with the second set of tubes. So, that's a discussion of removing the adenoids fluid from the middle ear and I'm Dr. David Hill."