Predicting safe tonsillectomy for ambulatory surgery.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the safety of tonsillectomy procedure in local setting.


METHODS
Retrospective review of 267 tonsillectomy patients in Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, Malaysia from January 2006 to December 2007.


RESULTS
Only 2.6% had trauma, 1.1% had difficult intubation, 0.7% had anaesthetic complication and none developed bleeding intra-operatively. Post-operatively, both primary and secondary haemorrhage showed prevalence of 1.9% each, 1.1% patients had infection and 0.4% patients had inability of extubation while another 1.9% had other complications. Duration of post-operative hospital stay was only slightly increased with occurrence of intra-operative complications but not with post-operative complications. Significant increase in risk was observed for both primary haemorrhage (OR: 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.09 min, P=0.020) and respiratory complications (OR: 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.16 min, P=0.024) by 4.5% and 8.3%, respectively, with every 1-min increase in length of surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
The observed low prevalence of complications corresponded with large number of studies denoting safety of tonsillectomy. This may well be increased by appropriately reducing the length of surgery. Although predictors for complications were unable to be determined, it is not advisable for ambulatory tonsillectomy to be performed on OSA patients considering the respiratory complications observed in our setting.
Ahmad
Raja
R
Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia. rlrahmad@gmail.com
Abdullah
Kahairi
K
Amin
Zamzil
Z
Rahman
Jamalludin A
JA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology*; D019106:Postoperative Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012449:Safety; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000601:surgery*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000209:etiology; D014068:Tonsillectomy