Chronic Tonsillitis and Its Relation with Childhood Asthma

Objective: - Chronic tonsillitis and childhood asthma, both are common childhood diseases, and it’s not surprising to think of an association between the two by otolaryngologists treating chronic tonsillitis in children. Methods: - A total of 500 children, aged 4?17 years, either reporting to OPD, Dept of ENT, or admitted in the Dept of Otolaryngology, during the period January’2011 and January’2013 were surveyed using the ISAAC questionnaire; and tonsils were evaluated by physical examination. Results: - A total of 446 questionnaires were completed giving an overall response rate of 89.2%. The prevalence of lifetime wheezing, 12-month wheezing and lifetime doctor-diagnosed asthma were 16.4%, 6.2% and 1.7%, respectively. The prevalence of frequent tonsillitis and tonsillar hypertrophy were 19.9% and 3.4%, respectively. Tonsillar hypertrophy was positively correlated with a history of frequent tonsillitis. Conclusion: - Frequent tonsillitis and tonsillar hypertrophy could be evaluated as risk factors for asthma due to their significant association with asthma-related symptoms. And thus, it is expected that this study would be a suitable baseline source for future trends on the prevalence, diagnoses and severity of asthma among 4?17 year old children.