Post-Tonsillectomy Bleeding: A 10 Years Timisoara ENT Department’s Experience

Introduction Tonsillectomy is the most common procedure for the treatment of chronic hypertrophic tonsillitis in children and adults, which contributes to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Materials and methods This paper is a retrospective study, for ten years (2012-2022), on the patients hospitalized to the Timisoara ENT Department who underwent tonsillectomy surgery, the procedure performed ’cold’, the surgical technique used was the classic one, with cold steel dissection. The files of 955 patients, 534 women, 422 men, aged between 18 and 56, diagnosed with chronic hypertrophic tonsillitis were analyzed. Patients with postoperative bleeding were classified into two groups; the primary (bleeding within postoperative day one) and secondary hemorrhage (bleeding on or after postoperative day two) groups.

Results Post-tonsillectomy bleeding occurred in 80 patients (8.38%); 13 presented primary hemorrhage and 67 presented secondary hemorrhage. Patients with postoperative hemorrhage were significantly older with mean age of 7.62 (±4.32) compared to all patients. The bleeding rate was higher in the female group (4.95%) compared to the male group (3.43%). From the group with secondary hemorrhage, 30 patients (46,82%) needed second surgery in our clinic and restoration of hemostasis under general anesthesia with the help of bipolar cautery.

Conclusion Postoperative hemorrhage is a frequent complication after tonsillectomy, with a rate of 8.38% in this study. . A higher rate of bleeding occurred more than 24 hours after the surgical intervention in the female group. An important conclusion of this study was that almost half of the patients with secondary bleeding need a second surgery.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. Mai 2023