I am often asked by parents and friends, “My child has enlarged tonsils, should I have surgery?” Today we will talk about what kind of tonsils need surgery.
First of all, let’s get to know the tonsils. The tonsils are usually referred to as the palatine tonsils. There is a pair of palatine tonsils, located between the lingual-palatal arch and the pharyngopalatal arch. Everyone has tonsils, some are congenitally enlarged and some are enlarged due to repeated inflammatory infections later in life. Clinicians classify tonsils into 3 degrees. Those located in the tonsillar fossa become degree 1, those beyond the tonsillar fossa that do not reach the midline of the overhang are degree 2, and those that reach the overhang are degree 3.
So what kind of tonsils need surgery! There are about two types of tonsils that need surgery.
The first type is tonsillar hypertrophy.
It generally means that the tonsils have reached 2 degrees, or even 3 degrees, which affects breathing. There is snoring in sleep, open mouth breathing, or difficulty in swallowing when eating. Such tonsils we need to do surgery.
The second case. The tonsils are not necessarily enlarged, but may be only 1 degree or a small 2 degrees.
1. There is a history of repeated tonsillar infections. Inflammation 4 to 5 times a year for more than 2 years.
2. Although the number of tonsillar inflammation is not much, tonsillar inflammation has caused peri-tonsillar abscess, peri-tonsillitis 3. tonsillar inflammation has caused glomerulonephritis, psoriasis, arthritis, myocarditis, etc. In the above cases, then we need to do tonsil surgery.
Usually we recommend tonsil surgery at the age of 4 years or older. This will not affect its immune function. There are special cases where the surgery can be extracted, depending on the child’s condition.