So a patient with tonsil and adenoid hypertrophy has large tonsils and adenoids. Hypertrophy does not mean there is a tumor it just is an enlargement in size of the normal tissue. Large adenoids can block off the back of the nose so that a child is unable to breathe through the nose. This leads to chronic mouth breathing. It can also lead to increased runny nose and sinus infections and a flattening of the midportion of the face over time.
Large tonsils can lead to some difficulty swallowing with food getting stuck in throat.
More commonly, large tonsils can lead to difficulty breathing with loud snoring and periods in which the child stops breathing for ten seconds or more. Well, snoring per se is not a problem, at least for the person sleeping. If the child is also having periods where they stop breathing at night, this can lead to significant problems. If the child will stop breathing for at least ten seconds at a time and this occurs for multiple episodes throughout the night, this can lead to long-term lung and heart problems in some children. Certainly, in children with severe apneic episodes there can be serious consequences.