title: Throat swabs in chronic tonsillitis: a time-honoured practice best forgotten.
abstract: We have estimated that in 1995 more than 2 million pounds was spent by the National Health Service on throat swabs used to investigate chronic tonsillitis in the UK. This study was devised to assess the value of this investigation. The surface microflora, obtained using a throat swab, was compared with the microflora of the deep tonsil in 30 cases of chronic tonsillitis. None of the throat swabs grew pathogenic organisms, while in 16 cases, heavy growths of recognised pathogens were grown from the tonsillar tissue. This paper demonstrates that throat swabs have little value in the management of chronic tonsillitis, and if the investigation was omitted in this condition, a substantial saving could be made.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngolgy, West Middlesex University Hospital, London.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hanif
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Dumbreck
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Prichard
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Manners
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000379:methods*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D014069:Tonsillitis / Q000382:microbiology*