Why remove the tonsils? Tonsils are usually removed because of recurrent infections or because their size is making eating and breathing difficult. After tonsillectomy, parents report improved feeding and breathing as well as more general improvements in health and energy.
How do you decide which children need their tonsils removed? When infections are the problem, the decision to remove the tonsils is made because the problems of continued infections (time off school, courses of antibiotics etc) are thought to be worse than the problems of tonsillectomy (admission to hospital, anaesthetic etc). When obstruction to breathing and eating is the problem, the decision is often made on how disturbed the sleep pattern is, and on how your child's weight is progressing.
Can my child manage without his tonsils? The tonsil's importance in the immune system (i.e. in fighting infection) fades soon after birth. Tonsils that are constantly infected cause, rather than prevent infection.
What are the risks?
Bleeding This is very rare during and immediately after the surgery. At 10 days when the scab falls off the tonsil, minor blood staining can occur in perhaps 1:200 children. Very, very occasionally there can be significant bleeding requiring transfusion. It is for this reason that all ENT surgeons advise patients not to travel until 10 days after surgery. As a severe bleed can very rarely be heralded by a small bleed, any patient who has bleeding after tonsillectomy should contact the hospital for advice.
Anesthesia Given a paediatric anesthetist, a paediatric surgeon and a hospital equipped and used to dealing with children, the anaesthetic risks of a fit child having an anaesthetic for routine ENT surgery are very small indeed.
see presentation on tonsillectomy