Clinical evaluation of pediatric patients with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.: A longitudinal study at a Saudi Arabian tertiary care center.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To study the clinical evaluation of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) patients and the factors associated with the improvement in the Derkay's score as a measure of disease severity. METHODS: A retrospective cohort that included all juvenile RRP patients who were admitted to King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between September 2015 and June 2022 and underwent surgical debulking. RESULTS: A total of 16 patients were eligible to join our study. Among them, 7 patients were males. Hoarseness of voice was the most frequent symptom. The median period of the follow-up was 56 months. Complete remission was achieved in 31.3%. The univariate linear regression model revealed that the cidofovir-treated patients had a significant reduction in the change value of Derkay's score compared to those without treatment (regression coefficient= -5.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-11.5 to -0.143], p=0.045). Also, the increased first Derkay's score decreased the change value and subsequently increased the improvement chance of the disease (regression coefficient= -0.424, 95% CI [-0.764 to -0.083], p=0.018). However, in the multivariate regression model, both variables showed non-significant results. CONCLUSION: cidofovir treatment and higher Derkay's scores affected the disease improvement.