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 a moratorium in Wales on tonsillectomy, which created a cohort of patients who fulfilled the criteria for tonsillectomy but were denied surgery for more than one year.1

We think that adults presenting with chronic or recurrent tonsillitis2 may expect as many as three or more episodes in the forthcoming six months and that these episodes are likely to result in time off work and further visits to the general practitioner. In contrast to the likely effect of intervention by tonsillectomy, we would not be able to give these patients any indication of if, or when, this was likely to change.

No randomised controlled trials have been conducted that support tonsillectomy in adults, but equally there are no studies that support denial of tonsillectomy as an alternative in patients with 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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Relevant Article

Tonsillectomy versus watchful waiting in recurrent streptococcal pharyngitis in adults: randomised controlled trial
Olli-Pekka Alho, Petri Koivunen, Tomi Penna, Heikki Teppo, Markku Koskela, and Jukka Luotonen
BMJ 2007 334: 939. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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