The Impact of Tonsillectomy on Covid 19 Infection

Abstract

Tonsils play role in human beings’ immune system; however, many patients
develop recurrent tonsilitis and tonsillectomy could be the best treatment option
for them. In fact, tonsillectomy is one of the commonest surgeries performed
worldwide. People in general believe that such a procedure could make them
more susceptible to infection. For that reason, searching the effect of
tonsillectomy on getting infection with SARS COV- 2 during the pandemic
becomes important. This study evaluated the effect of tonsillectomy procedure
on the susceptibility of individual to develop with SARS COV-2 infection
during the pandemic. In this study, 112 individuals included in this study. They
were subjected to many questions include age, sex, history of tonsillectomy,
history of COVID- 19 infection confirmed by PCR test. We excluded all
patients with COVID-19 infection who did not have PCR test, patients with
tonsillectomy after COVID-19 infection, all patients with immune deficiency
status such as, diabetes mellitus (DM), AIDS, and those on immune suppressive
therapy We found that the minimum age was seven and maximum age was
eighty. Mean age was 33.62 years old. The number of males and females was
equal in this study. From thirty persons who had history of tonsillectomy, ten
had been infected with COVID-19. On the other hand, nearly half of individuals
who did not undergo tonsillectomy were infected with COVID-19. In general,
our study showed that the females were infected with COVID-19 more than
males, with 29 infected females compared to 23 infected males.Although the
number of subjects who did not have a history of tonsillectomy and had been
infected with COVID-19 was higher than that of those who developed the
infection and had undergone tonsillectomy, the difference is still not statistically
significant.