It's standard practice to remove tonsils and adenoids when kids have frequent sore throats or sleep apnea. But for kids with mild symptoms, what's the best route -- nip the problem with tonsil removal? Or is "watchful waiting" the better option to see if things get worse?
In her study, tonsil removal -- tonsillectomy -- had little benefit over watchful waiting, writes researcher Birgit K. van Staaij, MD, with the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her study appears in this month's BMJ.
Not Sick Enough for Surgery
Van Staaij's study involved 300 children between ages 2 and 8, all being treated in hospitals and clinics throughout in the Netherlands. Each child had mild problems with sore throats and upper respiratory infections -- about three a year. The children were treated with either a tonsillectomy within six weeks, or doctors took a "wait and see" approach.
For the next two years, parents of all children kept a diary of sore throats, painful swallowing, cough, runny nose, earache, and ear infections. They also took the child's temperature daily. Kids were given antibiotics when they needed them.
The researchers also took into account the child's absences from day care or school due to sore throats. They looked at sleep patterns -- whether the child snored or had trouble breathing at night, and at whether the child had trouble eating solid food. They then compared the child's overall symptoms with the previous year.
For the first six months of the follow up, the kids who underwent tonsillectomy procedures were sick less often. Fevers occurred significantly less during this time but occurred with similar frequency in both groups from six months to two years of follow up.
But every month thereafter, there were no differences between the groups: Kids in the surgery group didn't sleep any better and had no fewer sore throats. In fact, 6% had complications such as bleeding and nausea after the surgery.
However, it's likely the short-term improvement that pleases parents and doctors after tonsil removal, van Staaij notes.
The authors write that surgery marginally reduced the number of episodes of fevers, throat infection, and upper respiratory infections per child per year.
Sicker children in the study -- those with three to six throat infections a year -- got the most benefit from tonsil removal; 50 "watchful waiting" children were allowed to have surgery because of persistent problems, she reports.