POST TONSILLECTOMY HAEMORRHAGE, RESULTS OF 3 MONTHS FOLLOW-UP

Objective: To ascertain the number of episodes of post operative haemorrhage that required surgical treatment under general anaesthesia.Material and Methods: This study was conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of Postgraduate Medical Institute from January 2002 to March 2003 over a period of 14 months. Five hundred patients, age 6 years to 60 years (mean 16 years) who had undergone as inpatient tonsillectomy and who had been hospitalized for at least 3 days.Results: In all, 14(2.8%) patients had experienced post tonsillectomy bleeding that required surgically achieved hemostasis under general anaesthesia. Nine (64.2%) patients had experienced reactionary haemorrhage and were treated under general anaesthesia. Five (35.8%) patients experienced secondary haemorrahge - one patient in this later group had excessive bleeding on 25th days postoperatively which we believed is the latest episode of secondary bleeding reported to-date.Conclusion: We conclude that a follow up period of 10 days appears to provide sufficient time to evaluate the incidence of post tonsillectomy haemorrhage.