For over 2,000 years tonsillectomy has been the center of heated disputes involving both laymen and physicians.1 The procedure has been praised, damned, disparaged, and advised, but, whether for or against or merely intrigued by some ramification of the problem, few of those interested have remained neutral or silent. Boies,2 in reviewing the literature on tonsillectomy and the problems related to it, found over 100 papers a year recorded in the "Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus" between 1942 and 1946, despite the marked decrease in medical writing brought about by the war.
The question of whether or not to perform the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy resolves itself into two opposing parts. On the one hand is the benefit to be expected from removal of the diseased tonsils and adenoids; on the other, the inherent risk involved. Indications for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy have been discussed extensively by a wide range of