Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults
Background There is a lack of data on normal size discrepancy in benign tonsils. The current school of thought for otolaryngologists is to remove tonsils that look clinically asymmetric on the basis of occult malignancy. However, many of these tonsils turn out to be benign after microscopic evaluati...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7159142 2023-05-15T17:22:38+02:00 Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults States, Alexandra Kirby, Simon 2020-03-16 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159142/ https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 en eng Cureus http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159142/ http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 Copyright © 2020, States et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Otolaryngology Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 2020-04-19T00:48:18Z Background There is a lack of data on normal size discrepancy in benign tonsils. The current school of thought for otolaryngologists is to remove tonsils that look clinically asymmetric on the basis of occult malignancy. However, many of these tonsils turn out to be benign after microscopic evaluation. The data in this article provide a reference range of size variation that can be seen in benign adult tonsils. Such new information can be incorporated into the surgeon’s preoperative discussion with patients with respect to informed consent and patient reassurance. Methods A chart review was conducted to identify pathology-proven benign bilateral tonsillectomies in the adult population. The review timeframe was from January 2012 to December 2017 (inclusive). All patients underwent surgery in an Eastern Health facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In total, 403 cases were identified that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results Out of the 403 cases studied, the average tonsillar volume was 42.81 cm(3). When differentiating between men and women, it can be seen that men have a higher average tonsil size (52.4 cm(3)) than women (37.85 cm(3)). The average difference in tonsil volume for all cases was 24.3%, with a standard deviation of 19.2%. Moreover, for men, the average difference in tonsil volume was 24.2%, with a standard deviation of 19.74%. Similarly, for women, the average difference in tonsil volume was 24.36%, with a standard deviation of 18.94%. Conclusions Findings from this study show that, on average, benign tonsils can vary in size by approximately 24% and that such a difference does not necessarily indicate malignancy. Text Newfoundland PubMed Central (PMC) Canada Newfoundland Cureus |
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Otolaryngology States, Alexandra Kirby, Simon Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
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Otolaryngology |
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Background There is a lack of data on normal size discrepancy in benign tonsils. The current school of thought for otolaryngologists is to remove tonsils that look clinically asymmetric on the basis of occult malignancy. However, many of these tonsils turn out to be benign after microscopic evaluation. The data in this article provide a reference range of size variation that can be seen in benign adult tonsils. Such new information can be incorporated into the surgeon’s preoperative discussion with patients with respect to informed consent and patient reassurance. Methods A chart review was conducted to identify pathology-proven benign bilateral tonsillectomies in the adult population. The review timeframe was from January 2012 to December 2017 (inclusive). All patients underwent surgery in an Eastern Health facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In total, 403 cases were identified that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results Out of the 403 cases studied, the average tonsillar volume was 42.81 cm(3). When differentiating between men and women, it can be seen that men have a higher average tonsil size (52.4 cm(3)) than women (37.85 cm(3)). The average difference in tonsil volume for all cases was 24.3%, with a standard deviation of 19.2%. Moreover, for men, the average difference in tonsil volume was 24.2%, with a standard deviation of 19.74%. Similarly, for women, the average difference in tonsil volume was 24.36%, with a standard deviation of 18.94%. Conclusions Findings from this study show that, on average, benign tonsils can vary in size by approximately 24% and that such a difference does not necessarily indicate malignancy. |
format |
Text |
author |
States, Alexandra Kirby, Simon |
author_facet |
States, Alexandra Kirby, Simon |
author_sort |
States, Alexandra |
title |
Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
title_short |
Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
title_full |
Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
title_fullStr |
Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
title_full_unstemmed |
Benign Palatine Tonsil Volume Variation Following Bilateral Tonsillectomy in Adults |
title_sort |
benign palatine tonsil volume variation following bilateral tonsillectomy in adults |
publisher |
Cureus |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159142/ https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 |
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Canada Newfoundland |
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Canada Newfoundland |
genre |
Newfoundland |
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Newfoundland |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159142/ http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2020, States et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7288 |
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Cureus |
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