Does a tonsillectomy indicated according to the German S2k guideline affect short-term quality of life in adults?

Background: Tonsillectomy (TE) for recurrent tonsillitis (RT) is one of the most common surgical interventions. Since 2015, the indication criteria for TE have become much stricter (German S2k guideline). Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) of short-term quality of life (QoL) after TE have not yet been investigated.

Purpose: To clarify if stringent indication for TE will better identify patients worthy of surgery and patients' QoL.

Methods: We prospectively studied the Tonsillectomy Outcome Inventory 14 (TOI-14) responses of 38 RT-patients recruited according to the S2k guideline in 2020 and compared their TOI-14 scores with those of a historical RT cohort from 2006 to 2008 and with a healthy middle-European cohort. New RT patients were assessed before, 2, 4, and 14 days and 6 months after TE. TOI-14 was measured as total and as disease-specific score.

Results: From pre- to 6-month postoperative, patients' QoL was significantly different, measured by TOI-14 (49.92 vs. 6.35; p < 0.001) and disease-specific score (60.35 vs. 9.9; p < 0.001). Preoperative disease-specific score was not different from that of the 2nd and 4th postoperative days but from the 14th postoperative day (60.35 vs. 29.26; p < 0.001). The historical cohort had significantly less RT complaints than the new cohort beforehand, but more dissatisfaction in QoL after TE. New TE patients had worse QoL pre- (49.92 vs. 11.78; p < 0.001) but more QoL postoperatively (6.34 vs. 11.78; p = 0.004) than healthy individuals.

Conclusions: Our results show that the tightening of the indication criteria for TE was justified and that TE patients significantly benefit from this surgery from day 14.