Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T19:52:11.098Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An audit of prophylactic antibiotic treatment following tonsillectomy in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

W. C. Lee*
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
M. C. Duignan
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
R. M. Walsh
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
J. R. McRae-Moore
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Mr W. C. Lee, Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, Shrewsbury SY1 1JS. Fax: 01743 357925

Abstract

A prospective audit study was undertaken to assess the effect of two different management policies following tonsillectomy in children in this hospital, one of which requires a prophylactic five-day course of oral antibiotics and the other does not. A total of 95 children were entered into the trial: 54 received post-operative antibiotics and 41 did not. The post-operative recovery was assessed by completion of a parent questionnaire which included the following parameters: degree of patient distress, nausea and vomiting, otalgia, halitosis, pharyngeal bleeding, analgesic requirement, day of return to a regular diet and General Practitioner consultation. There was no significant reduction in any of the morbidity measures in patients treated with antibiotics. In fact, the analgesic requirement and the incidence of otalgia and irritability on Days 6 and 7 and secondary haemorrhage were significantly higher in the antibiotic-treated patients. Although the number of patients included in this study are small, the results suggest that post-operative antibiotics do not improve the outcome of uncomplicated tonsillectomy. Our previous practice of routinely administering antibiotics to post-tonsillectomy children has been discontinued as the consequence of this audit.

Type
Audit
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benson-Mitchell, R., Maw, A. R. (1993) Assessment of sequelae at home following adenotonsillectomy. A basis for day-case management? Clinical Otolaryngology 18: 282284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Handler, S. D., Miller, L., Richmond, K. H., Baranak, C. C. (1986) Post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage: incidence, prevention and management. Laryngoscope 12431247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khan, M. H. Z., McCombie, A. W., Swift, A. C. (1994) Prophylactic antibiotic for tonsiliectomy? Pakistan Journal of Otolaryngology 10: 122126.Google Scholar
Linden, B. E., Gross, C. W., Long, T. E., Lazar, R. H. (1990) Morbidity in pediatric tonsiliectomy. Laryngoscope 100: 120124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Telian, S. A., Handler, S. D., Fleisher, G. R., Baranak, C. C., Wetmore, R. F., Potsic, W. P. (1986) The effect of antibiotic therapy on recovery after tonsiliectomy in children. Archives of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery 112: 610615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar