A new study found 88 per cent — roughly seven in eight — of kids who had undergone an operation to remove their tonsils were unlikely to benefit from the procedure.
The records of 1.6 million children were studied over a 12-year period and researchers found 12.4 per cent of those who had an operation had reported only five or six sore throats in a year. Some 44.7 per cent had suffered two to four sore throats in a year and 9.9 per cent had just one sore throat a year.
“Children with frequent sore throats usually suffer fewer sore throats over the next year or two,” Professor Tom Marshall, of the UK’s University of Birmingham — which conducted the study, said, according to Daily Mail.
“In those children with enough documented sore throats, the improvement is slightly quicker after tonsillectomy, which means surgery is justified. But research suggests children with fewer sore throats don’t benefit enough to justify surgery, because the sore throats tend to go away anyway.”
Children should only have their tonsils removed if they have had more than seven sore throats in a year, more than five sore throats per year for two successive years, or three sore throats per year for three successive years.
Research, by the University of Melbourne in Australia, found children who had their tonsils removed before the age of ten were at three times the risk of throat, nose and sinus infections as adults. Read more on that here.
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