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Long Term Impact of Adeno-tonsillectomy on Immunity Against Respiratory Viral Infections; Evidence Deduced During COVID-19 Pandemic

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Indian Journal of Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

To evaluate the risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection in patients who have undergone adeno-tonsillectomy (AT) as compared to their siblings.

Methods

In this bidirectional cohort control study, 36 cohorts, younger than 18 y, who underwent AT, and 27 controls (siblings of the enrolled cohorts, younger than 18 y) were recruited. Incidence of COVID-19 was analyzed by symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection, COVID-19 testing, and SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody measurement.

Results

In the cohort group, the overall COVID-19 positivity rate was 80.5% (n = 29/36) and symptomatic COVID-19 positivity rate was 68.9% (n = 20/29). Among the controls, the overall COVID-19 positivity rate was 44% (n = 12/27) and symptomatic COVID-19 positivity rate was 16% (n = 2/12). The cohorts had 1.8 times higher risk of contracting COVID-19 infection and the relative risk of symptomatic COVID-19 infections as compared to controls was 4.14.

Conclusions

This pilot study indicates that adeno-tonsillectomy poses children at a significantly higher risk of COVID-19 infections and likely other viral upper respiratory tract infections.

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Funding

In this research project, the antibody testing kits were procured using the financial grant from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with reference number MD20DEC-0734.

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Author notes

  1. Ramaneeshwaran Murugesan and Prem Sagar contributed equally for the development of this research as well as the manuscript and hence would be considered as combined first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India

    Ramaneeshwaran Murugesan, Prem Sagar, Rajeev Kumar, Chirom Amit Singh, Rakesh Kumar & Alok Thakar

  2. Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Sushil Kumar Kabra

  3. Department of Reproductive Biology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Pradeep Kumar Chaturvedi

  4. Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Maroof Ahmad Khan

Authors
  1. Ramaneeshwaran Murugesan
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  2. Prem Sagar
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  3. Rajeev Kumar
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  4. Sushil Kumar Kabra
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  5. Pradeep Kumar Chaturvedi
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  6. Maroof Ahmad Khan
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  7. Chirom Amit Singh
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  8. Rakesh Kumar
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  9. Alok Thakar
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Contributions

RM: Data collection, fund acquisition and manuscript drafting; PS: Conceptualization, data collection and manuscript drafting; RajeevK, PKC, CAS, RakeshK: Data collection and manuscript drafting; SKK, AT: Conceptualization and manuscript drafting; MAK: Statistical analysis and manuscript drafting. PS will act as guarantor for this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Prem Sagar.

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Murugesan, R., Sagar, P., Kumar, R. et al. Long Term Impact of Adeno-tonsillectomy on Immunity Against Respiratory Viral Infections; Evidence Deduced During COVID-19 Pandemic. Indian J Pediatr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-024-05125-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-024-05125-x

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