Adenoid Hypertrophy

Adenoid hypertrophy (or enlarged adenoids) is the unusual growth ("hypertrophy") of the adenoid tonsil. Firstly described and adenoidectomy performed by the Danish physician Wilhelm Meyer (1824-1895) in Copenhagen in 1868. He described that a long term adenoid hypertrophy will cause an obstruction of the nasal airways. These will lead to a dentofacial growth anomaly that was defined as adenoid facies.

There is very little lymphoid tissue in the nasopharynx of young babies; humans are born without substantial adenoids. The mat of lymphoid tissue called adenoids starts to get sizable during the first year of life. Just how big the adenoids become is quite variable between individual children.