Efficacy and Quality-of-Life Impact of Adult Tonsillectomy

Abstract

Adult tonsillectomy provides a significant quality-of-life improvement for patients with chronic tonsillitis. Tonsillectomy also affords decreases in medical resource utilization and missed workdays after tonsillectomy. Such factors should be incorporated into decision making when considering tonsillectomy.

Health-related quality of life after tonsillotomy versus tonsillectomy in young adults: 6 years postsurgery follow-up

“…The concept HRQL, originates from the World Health Organization's definition : "Health is a state of complete, physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" 8 . The benefit of all tonsil surgery is improvement in HRQL with less infection, visits at the physician, and courses of antibiotics 9,10 . There are very few randomized studies with longterm follow-up of health and well-being after tonsil surgery.…”

Medical and surgical treatment in divers with chronic rhinosinusitis and paranasal sinus barotrauma

“…Our response rate of 48.8% should be considered when examining how potential biases may have led to greater than true improvements in the scores of the questionnaires used. However, this response rate is higher when compared with similar QoL and by mail survey conducted studies, which mention rates ranging from 30-38.5% [26][27][28][29]. Also of note is that patients with CRS were not categorised into groups with respect to the presence or absence of nasal polyps or aspirin intolerance, which was not an exclusion criterion.…”

Effect of tonsillectomy on health-related quality of life and costs

“…Several studies have examined the effects of TE on a patient's HRQoL [5,[11][12][13][14]. However, many of them have been retrospective and limited to children, or the number of participants has been small, or a generic HRQoL instrument was lacking.…”

“…However, many of them have been retrospective and limited to children, or the number of participants has been small, or a generic HRQoL instrument was lacking. In adults, Bhattacharyya et al [5], using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory, documented an improvement in quality of life after TE in patients with chronic tonsillitis along with a decrease in need for antibiotics and physician visits, and also in absences from work. A similar finding of improved HRQoL and reduced need for health-care services was reported by Senska et al [14].…”

“…Consequently, if improvement occurs in their need for health-care services or in their absences from work after surgery, it may be possible that the operation -in addition to benefiting the patients in terms of health -also may benefit society in the form of reduced direct healthcare costs [5,6].…”