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Seven in 8 children's tonsillectomies are unnecessary
Researchers analysed the electronic medical records of over 1.6 million children from more than 700 UK general practices dating between 2005 and 2016. They found that out of 18,271 children who had their tonsils removed during this time, only 2,144 (11.7 per cent) had enough sore throats to justify surgery.
The researchers at the University's Institute of Applied Health Research concluded that their evidence, published today (Nov 6th) in British Journal of General Practice, showed that annually 32,500 children undergo needless tonsillectomies at a cost to the NHS of £36.9 million.
What's more, they found that many children who might benefit from having their tonsils removed are not having the surgical procedure. They found that of 15,764 children who had records showing sufficient sore throats to undergo a tonsillectomy, just 2,144 (13.6 per cent) actually went on to have one.
[...] Tom Marshall, Professor or Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Birmingham, said: "Research shows that children with frequent sore throats usually suffer fewer sore throats over the next year or two. In those children with enough documented sore throats, the improvement is slightly quicker after tonsillectomy, which means surgery is justified.
"But research suggests children with fewer sore throats don't benefit enough to justify surgery, because the sore throats tend to go away anyway.
"Our research showed that most children who had their tonsils removed weren't severely enough affected to justify treatment, while on the other hand, most children who were severely enough affected with frequent sore throats did not have their tonsils removed. The pattern changed little over the 12 year period.
"Children may be more harmed than helped by a tonsillectomy. We found that even among severely affected children only a tiny minority of ever have their tonsils out. It makes you wonder if tonsillectomy ever really essential in any child."
Incidence of indications for tonsillectomy and frequency of evidence-based surgery: a 12-year retrospective cohort study of primary care electronic records (DOI 10.3399/bjgp18X699833$)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:50PM (5 children)
It's all about the money. When the American Academy of Pediatrics defends ritual male genital mutilation, it's just doing the needful to defend a potentially $100,000,000 per year genital mutilation industry, and when that same AAP recommends allowing ritual female genital mutilation, it's again just doing the needful to expand the industry.
The same dynamic will be at play with tonsillectomies.
These things are just more reasons why we must take medical care and medical science out of the hands of the capitalist profit system.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:01PM
Most states force taxpayers to fund the circumcisions of completely healthy children; whenever a state has dropped support for circumcision, the rate of circumcision among newborns has dropped significantly.
Ain't nobody gonna pay fer dat outta pocket!
Plus, forcible circumcision is kind of a violation of a person's property rights; true, while you could make the same criticism of vaccination, you can at least say that vaccination is fairly well understood, and that the only discernible difference between a vaccinated child and a non-vaccinated child is that the vaccinated child has a provably superior immune system—in contrast, a circumcised boy is missing a functional part of his penis.
(Score: 4, Touché) by edIII on Thursday November 08 2018, @01:15AM (3 children)
I had my circumcision done at birth. I'm not missing all that much (no pun intended), and after hearing the stories about head cheese, and the lamentations of women dealing with unclean dicks, I think I'm out ahead.
A cleaner dick is one that will be blown more. I'm pretty sure we don't need to conduct a study on that either :) (or maybe we do)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @02:00AM
And, you don't have much of a choice:
Rationalize the situation as "I got the better end of the stick".
Acknowledge that you had a part of his sexual organ surgically removed, and that this was probably a wrong thing.
The same applies to women:
Rationalize the situation as "My son/lover got the better end of the stick"; "I did the best thing for my child".
Acknowledge that your loved one had a part of your sexual organ surgically removed (perhaps at your direction), and that this was probably a wrong thing.
So, besides the fact that talking seriously about penises is hard (hahahaha), it's no fucking wonder you fools just keep "harvesting neonatal foreskin" (look it up) without much discussion.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @06:20AM
And, you don't have much of a choice:
Rationalize the situation as "I got the better end of the stick".
Acknowledge that you had a part of his sexual organ surgically removed, and that this was probably a wrong thing.
The same applies to women:
Rationalize the situation as "My son/lover got the better end of the stick"; "I did the best thing for my child".
Acknowledge that your loved one had a part of his sexual organ surgically removed (perhaps at your direction), and that this was probably a wrong thing.
So, besides the fact that talking seriously about penises is hard (hahahaha), it's no fucking wonder you fools just keep "harvesting neonatal foreskin" (look it up) without much thought.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:09AM
Contrary to popular belief, you can obtain a "cleaner dick" by washing.