Tonsillotomy: it's time to clarify the facts

Trends and changes in paediatric tonsil surgery in Sweden 1987–2013: a population-based cohort study

“…Later, in the 1990s, the previously abandoned method of TT was revived in some countries, including Sweden and Austria 5. Compared with TE, TT is associated with fewer perioperative morbidities, such as postoperative haemorrhage and pain,6 7 and it is now primarily used to treat sleep disordered breathing (SDB) caused by upper airway obstruction due to tonsil hypertrophy 8…”

Post-operative morbidity and 1-year outcomes in CO2-laser tonsillotomy versus dissection tonsillectomy

“…Opponents of partial tonsillectomy procedures argue the issue of considerable risk of tonsillar regrowth. After TE, success rates of 90% [16,17] compared to 70-93% for TO have been reported [7,13,[18][19][20]. Re-growth of tonsillar tissue has a broad range of 0-26% [7] after TO and few studies report secondary surgery rates in adults [5].…”

“…The conducted 1-year follow-up could be a relatively short period to assess success rates. Windfuhr and Werner [20] showed recurrence of symptoms to be predominantly after 1 year of follow-up. This stresses the need for an extended follow-up period to establish long-term treatment effects with more certainty.…”

Indications for tonsillectomy stratified by the level of evidence

“…However, the individually unpredictable risk of tonsillar regrowth has to be included in the informed consent prior to surgery. It should be emphasized, that TOTO rather than ATE is predominantly performed in Sweden since many years [16], [568], [569]. …”