ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Pediatrics 2021 August;73(4):301-6

DOI: 10.23736/S2724-5276.19.05563-4

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Relationship between sleep quality and rhinitis in children: role of medical treatment with isotonic and hypertonic saline

Giuseppina MARCUCCIO ¹ ✉, Matteo Matteo DI BARI ¹, Francesco PRECENZANO ², Francesca F. OPERTO ³, Ilaria BITETTI ², Gaetano MOTTA ¹, Domenico TESTA ¹

¹ Unit of Head and Neck Surgery, Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, Naples, Italy; ² Unit of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, Naples, Italy; ³ Unit of Child Neuropsychiatry, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Aldo Moro University, Bari, Italy

BACKGROUND: The nose represents the port of entry, the first part of the upper airway and accounts for 50% of its total resistance. Many authors identified rhinitis as relevant factor affecting quality of life, and sleep habits of sufferers and their caregiver’s, particularly between 4-17 years old children. Both allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis may represent an important risk for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in children. We evaluated the quality of sleep and the role of nasal irrigations with saline solutions in children with sign and symptoms of rhinitis.
METHODS: An observational retrospective study was conducted on 58 children aged 3-6 years old receiving diagnosis of rhinitis according to clinical and amnestic evaluation. All recruited children were screened before medical topic treatment with the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire test in order to evaluate the sleep habits and after isotonic and hypertonic saline nasal irrigation for six months. One-Way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis of the results.
RESULTS: Forty-nine of 58 recruited children reached the follow-up control after six months of medical treatment. Mean score at Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire before and after medical treatments was respectively 0.39 and 0.28. One-Way ANOVA test showed a significant statistical difference (P<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Nasal topic decongestant may be used only for short-term treatments, and they do not seem to have long-term results. Topic corticosteroids may be used for long term treatment and their correlations with OSA seem to have different results. This study aims to attracting the attention of pediatricians on the importance of nasal topic saline solutions irrigations in children with rhinitis in improving HRQoL decreasing snoring and apneas and so daytime symptoms.

KEY WORDS: Surveys and questionnaires; Saline solution; Sleep apnea, obstructive; Rhinitis