Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in children in the United States. Over 500,000 tonsillectomies are performed each year in the US. The most common reasons to perform tonsillectomy are upper airway obstruction or sleep disordered breathing due to large tonsils and chronic tonsillitis. Other indications for tonsillectomy are: one tonsil is much larger than the other; pits or collection pockets within the tonsils; or swallowing problems related to large tonsils. A tonsillectomy is performed under a general anesthetic and takes about 45- 60 minutes. Various methods are used to remove tonsils and include cutting (cold) techniques, electrocautery (hot) techniques, and more recently the Coblation Assisted technique. The most common complications from tonsillectomy are dehydration related to post-operative pain and bleeding in about 3 % of patients. The average length of pain following surgery is 7-10 days depending on the technique used and how well that person heals. See www.entnet.org/kidsent for more information and www.tonsil.org for a video.
Text Resize
