This review provides current knowledge on the utility of common diagnostic tests, results of treatment options available and implications of treatment and unrecognised or untreated obstructive sleep apnoea.

The availability of paediatric PSG is very limited and because of a lack of normative data, uncertainty about interpretation of abnormal results, the recognition that even moderate snoring without sleep apnoea has detrimental neuro-cognitive effects and the fact that adenotonsillectomy is a very effective treatment for paediatric OSA we felt that a pragmatic and safe approach was to treat selected patients as if they had a positive PSG with appropriate anaesthetic technique and post operative care and monitoring.

An overnight home oximetry that is “normal/inconclusive” (MOS of 1) can be used as a screening tool to identify patients with sleep-disordered breathing who can be safely sent to peripheral hospitals or outpatient surgical centers for T&A.

A 6-item questionnaire is a sensitive and easy-to-use screening tool for pediatric OSA in a pediatric sleep clinic setting.

There is limited evidence concerning diagnostic alternatives to PSG for identifying OSA in children. However, polygraphy, urinary biomarkers, and rhinomanometry may be valid tests if their apparently high DTA is confirmed by subsequent studies.

PSGs ordered by PCPs were more likely to be normal than PSGs by sleep physicians. Sleep clinic assessment before PSGs may assist in appropriate service utilization, improve delivery of care, and reduce health care costs by using these tests appropriately.

Many questions remain unanswered and future research as well as PSG standardization will further clarify the role of PSG in the evaluation and treatment of disrupted breathing patterns in children.

This review focuses on the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of OSA, and the state-of-the-art and future directions in the perioperative management of children with OSA.

Post T&A admission rates vary tremendously across comparable tertiary-care pediatric hospitals. There is a crucial need for a better understanding of the risk of complications on the first postoperative night, and the appropriate indications for monitored admission on that night.

For an appropriately selected child, adenotonsillectomy can be safely performed as a daycase procedure in a tertiary centre.