TONSILLECTOMY IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

The day of the pioneer in the field of focal infection is over. Both the medical profession and the public have become so well aware of the importance of local infection in the genesis of systemic disease that removal of infected foci has assumed a commanding lead in all surgical procedures. A recent government report¹estimates that about one third of all operations since 1924 among the American urban population were for the removal of tonsils or adenoids. The urgent need for comprehensive statistical studies of the results to date is apparent. Kaiser²reported on 48,000 school children, in 20,000 of whom the tonsils had been removed and in 28,000 of whom they had not been removed. He found the incidence of rheumatic fever, joint pains or growing pains and chorea slightly less in the tonsillectomized patients than in those whose tonsils had not been removed, but the