tonsil probs

Tonsil problems have appeared in the medical literature for thousands of years, with accounts of tonsil surgery in Hindu texts showing up as early as 1000 B.C. The most colorful and bizarre account has to be Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus' 1st century A.D. report regarding removing a tonsil with his fingernail! While technology has changed, tonsil problems persist. Although children younger than 2 rarely have issues, kids between 2 and 7 years old can witness excessive tonsillar (and adenoid) growth which may contribute to sleep disturbance (sleep disordered breathing). Following this segment, recurrent tonsillitis/strep throat dominates the disease profile. We use the 7-5-3 rule (7 infections in 1 year, 5 infections/yr x 2 years, >/= 3 infections/yr x 3 years) to determine surgical candidacy in these patients. In any case, if surgery looks like a good option, we advocate for intracapsular tonsillectomy- a more advanced, less-invasive method of tonsillectomy which reduces recovery time and decreases the rate of post-surgery bleeding by 50 times...no fingernails involved.