Tonsillectomy is the surgical removal of the�tonsils.�The tonsils are made of tissues which fight infection. There are lots of other places in the head, neck and throughout the body that are made of this tissue, so even without the tonsils the body can still fight infection.
Indications
Severe Throat pain in chronic tonsillitis.
Difficulty in swallowing food.
Obstruct breathing due to enlarged tonsils.
Procedure
The patient is given general anesthesia. The procedure is carried out with the patient lying flat on their backs, with the shoulders elevated on a small pillow so that the neck is hyper extended.�A mouth gag is used to prop the mouth open. The surgeon removes the tonsils through the mouth and stops any bleeding. A special instrument called diathermia is usually used which can free the tonsils and at the same time can stop the bleeding by applying a wave of heat on the small blood vessels.
Post Procedure
Patient will be given oxygen from a face mask for a few hours if he/she has had any chest problems in the past, due to smoking or obesity.
Patient will have a sore throat, stiffness of the jaws and a mild ear ache.
General anesthetic may make the patient slow, clumsy and forgetful for about 24 hours.
Patient has to eat and chew solid, soft food, as soon as possible after the operation. Ice cream is a good meal after this operation because it soothes the sore throat. Initially it will be difficult to have solid food but solid foods helps to cure sore throat more quickly.
Only taking drinks will make throat sore with the risk of infection, and bleeding, all of which will prolong the stay in hospital.
Patient may need to meet the surgeon again to check the progress.
No of days for the treatment
If the patient is eating and drinking normally, and there is no sign of any infection, he/she will be fit to go home one or two days after the operation.
Risks
There is a very small risk of complications related to your heart and the lungs because of the administration of general anesthesia.
Bleeding in the area from which tonsils have been removed after 2 or 3 hours or after a few weeks of surgery. This is usually due to infection caused by not having food. Very rarely another surgery has to be done to stop bleeding.
A small risk of infection at the place from which tonsil has been removed. If it develops increasing pain in the throat or the ears, a headache or a temperature, it probably means that an infection is developing and will need medical attention immediately. Taking antibiotics for a week or two normally resolves the problem.
Rarely, the infection can be much more serious and can spread around the place where tonsils used to be or it can even propagate into the bloodstream. In such cases, patient will have to come back to hospital and have it treated with intravenous antibiotics � through a small plastic tube placed in a vein in the arm.
