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Thousands of children undergo tonsillectomy each year – surgical removal of tonsils – without them needing them
A study conducted in England revealed that nine of these operations out of ten in this country -88% – are useless.
- What can you do best against a cold or flu?
And you warn that the surgical procedure could be more damaging than beneficial for children, in addition to the cost to the country's health system.
The study, published in the British Journal of General Medicine, badyzed the records of more than 1.6 million children between 2005 and 2016.
found that out of more than 18,000 children children who underwent tonsillectomy during this period, only in 2,144 (about 12%) were justified on the medical plane, from the operation.
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Criteria
As the researchers explain, tonsillectomy should only be proposed if one of the main criteria is met:
- More than seven documented episodes of sore throat or inflammation a year. [19659021] More than five episodes of pain or inflammation of the throat for two consecutive years.
- Three episodes of sore throat or inflammation a year for three consecutive years.
The study indicates that one in 10 children had suffered only one episode of sore throat or swelling before the surgery was performed
Adds that two to three out of every 1,000 children had a tonsillectomy each year between 2005 and 2016, but only one out of every eight met the recommended criteria.
Based on these data, the study estimates that 32,500 of the 37,000 tonsillectomies performed in the UK between 2016 and 2017 were unnecessary and cost the national health services US $ 48.5 billion.
Professor Tom Marshall, of the Applied Health Research Institute of the University of Birmingham, England, who is one of the authors of the study, said the Tonsillectomies may be warranted in the most severely affected patients.
But he adds that "research suggests that children with less severe pain or sore throat will not receive sufficient benefits to warrant surgery, because in any case, sore throat tends to occur . "
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The problem is not unique to the United Kingdom.
Although the figures vary from one country to another and in the countries themselves, a research published in 2014 in The Cochrane Review that compared trials conducted in several countries on the effectiveness of tonsillectomy and revealed that many of these operations were performed without sufficient medical justification.
Figures from the European Union show that in 2015, rates in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Norway, tonsillectomies were three times higher than in the United Kingdom. United
. But the United States is the country where this surgery is the most common. Each year, more than 500,000 tonsillectomies are performed in children and it is the third most common child surgery in the country.
The intervention rate is so high that even has been described The tonsillectomy is considered "an epidemic".
"It's a silent epidemic of unnecessary medical care," said David Goodman, of Darthouth Atlas, in 2012, a health research database of the Research Institute on the health policies of Dartmouth. Health and clinical practice.
"In most cases, it is performed in patients with much less recurrent symptoms than those who should be indicated," Goodman said.
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Complications
The experts also point out that, as with all surgeries, tonsillectomies can lead to complications that, although rare, can be serious.
"When performing this operation, In the right group of children, it can significantly reduce throat infections, improve sleep quality, consult a doctor, use antibiotics and, more importantly, improve the quality of life of the child and family, "experts at the McGovern School of Medicine at the University of Texas
" However, the operation involves morbidity that includes hospitalization , financial cost, risk of anesthesia, postoperative bleeding and scarring " add.
"In fact, up to 4% of operated children can be readmitted because of secondary complications, which means that making good decisions for this surgery is of paramount importance."
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