Tonsillectomy & Adenoidectomy (T&A) Video

The original tonsillectomy video depicted actual live surgery, but due to the rated R nature, many patients and families were unable to tolerate viewing... but still wanted a movie to understand what happens. Given numerous requests for a sanitized and PG version of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy surgery, I have finally had the opportunity to create one. For more general information about tonsil and adenoid surgery, click here . Enjoy!

11/01/2019 0

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Potential Increased Long-Term Risk of Diseases with Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy

The New York Times published a story on June 7, 2018 publicizing a Danish 2018 study that suggested that children under 9 years old undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy  are at increased long-term risk of respiratory, infectious, and allergic diseases. (Adults undergoing this surgery were not investigated.) All prior studies  evaluating for any adverse affects from surgical intervention looked more at any unusual immunological changes after surgery; these studies did not show a…

6/09/2018 0

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Tonsillectomy WITHOUT General Anesthesia Using Only Local Anesthesia

I always thought that tonsillectomy can only be performed under general anesthesia. I was wrong... In some countries even now, awake tonsillectomy is routinely performed using only local anesthesia. There has even been some papers written on this topic which I was not aware of until now. According to one 2018 paper , a local anesthetic tonsillectomy without general anesthesia is performed the following way: ...cold steel method of dissection, using tonsillar snare at the inferior tonsill…

6/05/2018 0

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Tonsillectomy Has Higher Risk of Complications if Younger Than 3 Years

Tonsillectomy is commonly performed in children for really 2 main conditions... chronic tonsillitis (whether from strep of other) or obstructive sleep apnea . This surgery is overall considered safe and effective. However, experienced clinicians have also known that complications occur more frequently in children under 3 years of age. As such, for a very young child, this surgery is often recommended to be delayed if at all possible until a child is over 3 years old. But is this concern …

3/15/2018 0

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Tonsillectomy Associated with Increased Pregnancy / Fertility Rates

Image courtesy of nenetus at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net A reader pointed this interesting research article from the United Kingdom that suggests females who have undergone tonsillectomy and/or appendectomy had increased fertility rates compared to women who have had neither surgeries. Fertility in this study was measured by time to pregnancy after surgery. The results reported are as follows: • During a mean follow-up of about 15 years after surgery, 53.4% of women who underwent tonsillec…

11/26/2017 0

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Cartoon Showing What Surgery Day is Like from a Child's Perspective

Too often, parents expressed to me that online surgery videos like tonsillectomy and ear tubes were too "violent" for them to watch with their child. What is needed is a video that they can watch safely with their child that shows what will happen from a child's perspective, but rated G. No blood, no cuts, and no grossness included. Due to such requested demand, I finally created two videos that can be considered "kid-safe" showing what surgery day will be like fo…

11/10/2017 0

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Video Showing What Surgery Day is Like from a Child's Perspective (Rated G)

Too often, parents expressed to me that online surgery videos like tonsillectomy and ear tubes were too "violent" for them to watch with their child. What is needed is a video that they can watch safely with their child that shows what will happen from a child's perspective, but rated G. No blood, no cuts, and no grossness included. Due to such requested demand, I finally created a video that is "kid-safe" showing what surgery day will be like for them thru their …

10/21/2017 0

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One Tonsil Larger than the Other a Sign of Cancer?

Not uncommonly, a patient will present to an ENT clinic with only ONE tonsil being unusually large compared with the other side. Typically, such patients have no pain, no sore throat,  no preceding illness, no trouble swallowing , etc. Really, no symptoms other than one tonsil being very large. The main concern from an ENT perspective is that this may suggest the possibility of cancer. What is the risk of cancer in such a situation where an asymmetric tonsil hypertrophy is present? Depend…

4/13/2016 0

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