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83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

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Immunological alterations in children after volume reduction of adenoids and tonsils with a surgical ultrasound device

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  • corresponding author Evangelia Tsakiropoulou - Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Aggelos Chatziavramidis - Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Dimosthenis Gennadiou - Giannitsa Hospital, Giannitsa, Greece
  • Barbara Karaisaridou - Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Jannis Constantinidis - Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 83. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hnod070

doi: 10.3205/12hnod070, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hnod0700

Published: April 4, 2012

© 2012 Tsakiropoulou et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: Adenoids and tonsils as part of Waldeyer’s ring, play an important role in both humoral and cellular immunity. We aim to investigate any alteration in immunological status caused by their volume reduction with the use of an ultrasound device.

Methods: In this prospective study, 44 children, presenting with mouth breathing, snoring and apnoeas, were enrolled. The median age was 6.9 years (3.5–12 years). Two study groups were formed. In 17 children, cold instrumentation was used for adenotonsillectomy (group A). Group B included 27 children who underwent tonsil ablation by means of an ultrasound device. In all children immunological factors such as: IgA, IgG, IgM, C3, C4, CD4, CD8, CD2 and CD19 were measured in blood samples before surgery and 6 months postoperatively.

Results: All patients reported significant improvement of their symptoms after the surgery. No statistically significant difference was demonstrated between the two groups regarding the number of episodes of upper respiratory tract infections and the size of tonsils after surgery. In addition, no significant difference was seen in Ig production for any isotypes between the two groups before and after surgery. Regarding the cellular immunity, no statistically significant difference was also found.

Conclusion: The use of a surgical ultrasound device for the treatment of tonsillar hyperplasia does not seem to cause any immunological alterations compared to the traditional “cold instrumentation” method. In addition, it is a safe and effective method.