A Study on the Length of Hospitalization After Pediatric Tonsillectomy

Abstract

Tonsillectomy is the most commonly performed in pediatric surgery in the field of otolaryngology. In Japan, children who undergo tonsillectomy are generally hospitalized for approximately one week after the surgery. On the other hand, in Europe and the United States, day-care admission or overnight hospitalization has become established for children undergoing tonsillectomy. It has become clear by now, that the risk of complications does not differ significantly depending on the length of hospitalization.

For this study, we enrolled 169 children (114 boys and 55 girls) who had undergone tonsillectomy between January 2015 and January 2021 at the Department of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Hokkaido Medical Center for Children Health and Development. To determine the minimal and optimal duration of hospitalization for children after tonsillectomy, we examined the following parameters; postoperative time to resumption of oral intake, presence/absence of postoperative hemorrhage, and distance from this hospital to the place of residence.

The results showed that the average postoperative time to resumption of oral intake was 2.0 days and the average postoperative length of hospitalization was 3.5 days, which were very short; the incidence rates of early and late postoperative hemorrhage were 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively, lower than the rates reported in past literature.

We concluded that it is possible to shorten the postoperative length of hospitalization. It is important to set the optimal postoperative length of hospitalization in consideration of the general condition and social background of the children.