Tonsil surgery’s extra costs

Removing the tonsils of children with mild or moderate throat infections is more expensive and has fewer health benefits than watching and waiting, Dutch researchers said last week.

In a study involving 300 children ages 2 to 8 advised to have their tonsils out, those who avoided surgery had fewer annual visits to doctors and lower medical costs due to fevers and throat infections.

Tonsils are masses of tissue at the back of the throat that trap bacteria and viruses a person may breathe in.

“Surgery resulted in a significant increase in costs without realizing relevant clinical benefit,” wrote the authors, of the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, in the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Although doctors today carry out far fewer tonsillectomies than in the past, it is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures for children.