The common operation adenotonsillectomy is the removal of the tonsils and adenoids. This procedure is often an outpatient surgery with the patient returning home within hours. It is a cure for obstructive sleep apnea in many children but not for all.
Doctors have often used codeine post surgery to handle pain in youngsters. Codeine though converts into morphine at a rapid rate in many youngsters, leading to accidental overdoses.
Sick Kids reports:
“It is shocking to think that an otherwise healthy toddler who needed an adenotonsillectomy died as a result of the prescribed painkiller,” says Dr. Gideon Koren, the study’s senior author, who is also Director of the Motherisk Program and Professor of Paediatrics, Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto.
The use of codeine is most dangerous for those children who's sleep apnea is not cured by the operation.
