Study: Cut the Meds After Tonsillectomy

Children undergoing a tonsillectomy currently take antibiotics for seven days after their procedure. Experts now say three days of antibiotics may produce the same results for the pediatric patients.

Almost 56 out of every 10,000 children under 15 years old require a tonsillectomy, most commonly to treat tonsillitis and sleep-related breathing problems. The safe procedure has a minimal death rate, but side effects during the week after the procedure include pain, bleeding, lethargy and bad breath.

“Pain can lead to decreased oral intake and ultimately dehydration,” the authors wrote. They explain that antibiotics have been used to help with patient’s pain for over 50 years now. “Antibiotic use after tonsillectomy may quantitatively lessen the bacterial content and thus reduce pain.”

Conducted by the New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, the study included 49 patients to undergo a tonsillectomy. After the procedure, 26 patients took antibiotics for seven days. 23 patients took three days of antibiotics and four days of a placebo.

Researchers found no significant difference between the two groups. “A shorter course of antibiotics carries other potential advantages, including decreased cost, increased patient compliance with medications and a decrease in antibiotic-associated complication and bacterial resistance,” the authors wrote. – Archives of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery