A Cross-sectional Retrospective Study of Normal Changes in the Pharyngeal Airway Volume in White Children with 3 Different Skeletal Patterns from Age 9 to 15 years: Part 1

Introduction: This study investigated correlations between airway size and age, sex, and skeletal patterns; identified airway change trends; and measured volumetric norms in children via cone-beam computed tomography.

Methods: Four hundred twenty nontreated white patients were stratified by age, sex, and anteroposterior skeletal pattern. The nasopharyngeal airway (NPA), oropharyngeal airway (OPA), and total pharyngeal airway (TPA) volumes were delineated on 3-dimensional digital cephalograms. SPSS (SPSS, Chicago, Ill) was used to run an analysis of variance and post-hoc analyses.

Results: The Class III group had significantly larger OPA volumes than Class I and II groups. Male subjects had considerably larger NPA volumes than female subjects. Age was significantly associated with all 3 airway volumes (P <0.05). The young cohort (ages, 9-10 years) had a mean TPA of 11,435.34 ± 484.45 mm, the middle cohort (ages, 11-13 years) had a mean TPA of 14,152.07 ± 395.46 mm, and the older cohort (ages, 14-15 years) had a mean TPA of 18,057.99 ± 484.25 mm.

Conclusions: An effect of skeletal classification on OPA and a sex effect on NPA were observed. The annual change in the mean of TPA volume decreased in subjects aged 10-12 years, then rebounded until 14 years. TPA change peaked in female subjects 1 year before male subjects.