Histopathological results of adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy: 14 years of experience

Abstract

The necessity of routine pathologic examinations is still debatable considering the cost and the increase in workload. With a very wide spectrum of patients, this study aims to examine the cases collected in our hospital archive for the past 14 years retrospectively and to contribute to the literature on a subject that is still controversial. The results of adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy specimens of 5.658 patients who underwent adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy under general anaesthesia were evaluated. The number of patients who underwent only adenoidectomy was 2.057 (36.3%), whereas the number of patients who underwent only tonsillectomy was 978 (17.2%). Adenoidectomy together with tonsillectomy was performed on the remaining 2.623 (46.5%) patients. A total number of 11.882 specimens from 5.658 were evaluated histopathologically. The results showed that 2.846 (50.3%) patients had lymphoid hyperplasia, 1.651 (29.1%) had chronic inflammation, 1.012 (17.8%) had coexistence of lymphoid hyperplasia and chronic inflammation, 113 (1.99%) had Actinomyces granules, nine (0.15%) had squamous papilloma, three (0.05%) had epidermoid cyst, two (0.03%) had Aspergillus sphericules and 1 (0.01%) had foreign object reaction. None of the patients who underwent tonsillectomy without a pre-diagnosis of malignancy were diagnosed with cancer. However, a 12-year-old patient without a pre-diagnosis of malignancy was reported to have undifferentiated nasopharyngeal cancer (1/4.680, 0.021%). It’s possible that routine pathological examination, especially on patients under the age of 10, is not necessary when there is no finding that raises suspicion for malignancy.