An epidemiological study of paediatric adenotonsillectomy in Victoria, Australia, 2010‐2015: Changing indications and lack of effect of hospital volume on inter‐hospital transfers

Objective To describe the contemporary epidemiology of paediatric adenotonsillectomy in an Australian setting, examine the incidence rate over 2010‐2015 and investigate factors associated with inter‐hospital transfer. Design Retrospective population‐based study. Setting Multicentre study in the state of Victoria, Australia. Participants From the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset, which included all patients aged 0‐19 years who underwent adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy in Victoria, Australia between 2010 and 2015. Main Outcome Measures Annual incidence rate, hospital volume, inter‐hospital transfer. Results Between 2010 and 2015, 59 008 patients underwent 61 281 procedures, with highest number performed in males (52.7%), children aged under 10 years (73.5%) and in the higher socioeconomic groups (24.6% in quintile 4 and 23.2% in quintile 5). Seventy‐five cases (0.12%) resulted in inter‐hospital transfer, which was significantly associated with young age (under 5 years). More than a third of hospitals (35.7%) performed an average rate of