EVALUATION OF THE TONSILLECTOMY INDICATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY THINKING ABOUT TONSILLECTOMY
S. B. Ankara Numune Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, KBB Kliniği, Ankara, Türkiye Aim: Tonsillectomy (T) is discussed in literature about necessity, indications and benefits against the taken risk. The issue is infectious causes as protection the importance. We evaluated our T cases retrospectively. Indications, preoperative evaluation of patients following the decision of T and surgical results were reviewed with literature.Patients and Methods: In our study, 430 patients who were operated tonsillectomy between 2007 and 2010 included. T indications were divided into 4 groups. Tonsil specimens were examined pathologically. In patients admitted to our clinic within 1 year postoperatively were evaluated from hospital records.
Results: The mean age of patients was 14 (3-71) in our study. T were forged with chronic and/or recurrent infections in 75.3 % (324/430), upper airway obstructions in 21.6 % (93/430) , suspected malignancy in 1.6 % (7/430) and other causes in 0.69% (3/430) of the patients'. There was a hidden cancer in any patient. 11.9 % (27/226) of patients younger than 18 years' were visited 3 or more times to our clinic postoperative 1-year period due to a variety of upper respiratory tract infection.
Conclusions: Infectious causes have been identified as the first indications of T in our study. In some studies, T is often considered as unjustified despite a common surgical procedure. This review was thought-provoking. The essential criteria in T decision should be documented fully, especially in patients who operated because of recurrent episodes of tonsillitis. In addition, not only pre-operative diagnosis criteria but also investigation of tonsil specimen by the microbiology clinic and post-operative follow-up may be useful this issue.
Keywords : Tonsillectomy, Indication, Tonsillitis