RE: Your Tonsils: Should You Keep Them?

Thank you for this interesting review. I lost my Tonisilla palatina around 40 years ago. It was a real traumatic procedure in local anaesthesia at home. The local anaesthesia in the first step doesn´t function very well and a reanaesthesia was necessary in order to continue the devasting destruction of my Tonsilla palatinae.

Sleeping by sitting three nights after the intervention was not easy.

Afterwards I has 3-4 years an increaed rate of respiratory infectitons. I think this was the result of the loss of immunological memory cells within the Tonsilla palatina.

From current point of view there is only one absolute indication to a tonsillectomy - the development of a parapharyngeal life threatening abcess.

The tonsils are normally all time in some kind of physiological inflammation in order to combat bacterial pathogens within the orapharynx.

So the tonsilitis is often self limiting. As I said only in the case of a parapharyngeal abscess or recurrent severe chronical tonsilitis with the risk of dissemination of streptococus and other bacteria to the valves of the heart the indication of a tonsillectomy must be discussed in interdisciplinary setting with the patient.

It is just my own opinion.

Best wishes from Germany.

!LUV