Medicine people, can someone explain the move away from tonsillectomies?
My 9YO routinely has had swollen glands and regularly complains about a sore throat for the past few months. Her ped said they don’t do it anymore??
The background is a mild case of Covid once back in 2021, a few weeks post vaccination. She’s been boosted regularly and no obvious long term complications. We mask indoors and test often (so I’m fairly certain just the one infection).
I don’t know that her ped (who is generally fine!) is worried (enough?). We’ve been seen once- when the school nurse remarked on her glands feeling swollen- and was told it was viral and sent home.
She missed a week with the flu and we’ve gotten terse attendance letters (but I’m not sending a feverish kid to school!). So it’s affecting her quality of life for sure and I’m not sure what a next step should be (or that her ped is hearing us?).
B just got his removed this yr at 6yo, but it was for mouth breathing/sleep apnea rather than strep/getting sick. He is one of 3 kids out of 26 who didn’t get strep when his class had an outbreak earlier this month tho.
As of about 10 years ago, the indications for tonsillectomy got tightened up. Previously it was 3 cases of strep in 12 mo. Now it's 5/yr for 3 yrs or 7/yr. Some of the non-academic docs will still follow the older standard.
Other reasons include cryptic tonsillitis or sleep disordered breathing.
I just…don’t know how to help her and it seems like tonsillectomies solved everything when I was a kid! Last strep culture was negative; I’ll try and get her swabbed tomorrow.
Yes, this makes sense. I tend to want to be conservative with interventions but then again, it’s my kid and she’s a mess! I guess I just wish that the doctor had been more interested in explaining this or coming up with other solutions.
