More advice to clinicians

doi:10.1136/bmj.39212.697407.3A

BMJ 2007;334:1019 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39212.697407.3A

Letters

Recurrent pharyngo-tonsillitis

More advice to clinicians

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Concerns over the safety of single use instruments led to amoratorium in Wales on tonsillectomy, which created a cohortof patients who fulfilled the criteria for tonsillectomy butwere denied surgery for more than one year.¹

We think that adults presenting with chronic or recurrent tonsillitis²may expect as many as three or more episodes in the forthcomingsix months and that these episodes are likely to result in timeoff work and further visits to the general practitioner. Incontrast to the likely effect of intervention by tonsillectomy,we would not be able to give these patients any indication ofif, or when, this was likely to change.

No randomised controlled trials have been conducted that supporttonsillectomy in adults, but equally there are no studies thatsupport denial of tonsillectomy as an alternative in patientswith serious disease. As no test exists to determine if an individual. . . [Full text of this article]

Alun Tomkinson, consultant in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery¹, Rosemary Fox, specialist registrar in public health medicine², Mark Temple, consultant in public health medicine²

¹ University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff CF14 4XW, ² National Public Health Service for Wales, Cardiff CF10 3NW

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BMJ 2007 334: 939. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]