Predictive Factor of Post-Operative Tonsillectomy Pain

Abstract

Post-operative pain is a common problem among patients undergoing tonsillectomy which affected their quality of life. The objective of this study was to identify the predictors of post-tonsillectomy pain which would be useful for improving the treatment plan and outcomes. It was conducted as a retrospective study during the period from the year 2012 to 2017. The tonsillectomy’s patient demographic data and the suspected predictors for post-operative tonsillectomy pain which included sex, age, indication for surgery and pathological report were collected. The patients were divided into 2 groups: (1) major post-operative pain and (2) minor post-operative pain. The data were analyzed to find out the post-operative pain’s predictors; and the statistically significant level was set at 0.05. There were 158 patients in this study, with average age of 20 ±14.16 years. There were more women than men. The average duration of admission was 6 ± 1.87 days. Seventeen patients revisited the hospital ahead of the follow up schedule; and  16 of them had severe post-operative pain and bleeding. There were 14 patients who required re-hospitalization. Forty seven (29.7%) patients were classified as major post-operative pain group while 111 (70.3%) were minor post-operative pain group. The duration of hospital stay, revisit, readmission and post-operative bleeding were significantly higher in the major post-operative pain group. The 2 significant predictors of high post-operative pain were recurrent pre-operative tonsillitis and raw surface of tonsillar based >9 cm2. Therefore, proper treatment planning should be practised when provide tonsillectomy in patients who presented with those 2 predictorsin order to achieve excellent treatment outcome.