Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 1942 · 14 citations · 7 references
MedicineInfectious DiseasesSurgeryEpidemiologyInfectious Disease EpidemiologyOtolaryngologic SurgeryDisease SpreadTonsil Surgery
During the last twelve years a number of articles have appeared in the literature reporting the occurrence of poliomyelitis, especially that of the bulbar type, following removal of tonsils during epidemics of this disease. The results of these investigations, which are contrary to my findings in a review of case records of the Chicago epidemic of 1916 and also to my experience, prompted me to make as complete a survey of the relation of tonsillectomy to poliomyelitis as was afforded by the literature and the various public health statistics that I could gather. The object of this survey was to try to ascertain (1) whether patients who have been tonsillectomized during the course of an epidemic of poliomyelitis are more suscéptible to the disease than those whose tonsils have not been removed, (2) whether those who have had their tonsils removed are more susceptible, irrespective of the time of the
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