Complications of tonsillectomy experienced at lady reading hospital peshawar

Objective: to determine the incidence of complications in patients undergoing tonsillectomy at lady reading hospital peshawar. material and methods: this descriptive prospective study was carried out at the department of ear,nose,throat,head and neck surgery,postgraduate medical institute lady reading hospital peshawar from jan. 2008 to dec. 2010. in these 2 years duration 4557 tonsillectomies were performed but only 35 patients developed complications after tonsillectomy. after admitting these patients were put on injectable third generation antibiotics with a dose of 50mg/kg body weight in divided doses. after resuscitating patients were evaluated completely. most of the complications were treated conservatively. results: this study was conducted on 35 cases having post-tonsillectomy complications constituting 19 male and 16 female,with male: female ratio of 1.18: 1. the age of the patients ranged from 07-42 years with mean age of 20.89+s.d 8.08 years. after admitting the patients most of the patients (40%) were treated conservatively while 34.28% patients underwent various surgical techniques for controlling complications of tonsillectomy. secondary hemorrhage (2-10 days) was on top (0.26%) followed by primary hemorrhage in 6 cases (0.13%) and other rare complications. conclusion: it is concluded from our study that postoperative bleeding was the commonest complication of tonsillectomy which was controlled mainly conservatively.