An audit of prophylactic antibiotic treatment following tonsillectomy in children.
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 doses 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. I 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 result 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.
Lee
W C
WC
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.
Duignan
M C
MC
Walsh
R M
RM
McRae-Moore
J R
JR
D000293:Adolescent; D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014068:Tonsillectomy; D017211:Treatment Failure