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 Tonsil
Removal Has Slight Clinical Benefit
by Rick Weiss, Washington Post, September 26, 2004
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Removing
children's tonsils is not nearly as common in the United States
as it was a few decades ago, as more doctors have come to the
conclusion that the surgery's ability to reduce the frequency of
throat infections had been overrated.
But about 50 of every 10,000 U.S. children still undergo the
surgery each year, and the rates in Europe are even higher -
evidence of lingering differences of opinion about the
procedure's value.
To help settle the issue, doctors in the Netherlands randomly
sorted 300 patients with chronic throat infections, ages 2 to 8,
into two groups: one that had their tonsils and adenoids removed
within six weeks, and another that did not.
After an average follow-up period of 22 months, those who had
the surgery had tallied 0.56 throat infections per person per
year, while those who did not have the surgery had 0.77
infections - a difference that was barely significant by
statistical analysis and which, in the opinion of the doctors,
was not of notable medical significance.
The doctors found slightly greater benefit for children who had
three to six infections in the previous year, compared with
those who had fewer.
The surgery, they concluded in the current online issue of the
British Medical Journal, "has little clinical benefit" for most
children.?
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