To buttress his contention that the procedure is almost never necessary gingernut quotes Bhattacharyya selectively, so it's worth reading the whole paragraph instead of just his choice.
"As a rough rule of thumb, adults who have three or more episodes of infectious tonsillitis per year with severe symptoms should be seriously considered for tonsillectomy, and those who have more than four or five episodes per year should definitely be considered. A pattern of such infections year after year makes an even stronger case for the surgery.
The number of infections per year should not be the only guide, however: the decision should also focus on the severity of the symptoms. For example, patients who have only two or three infectious exacerbations per year but for whom each infection causes a full week of missed school or work should also be considered."
Theoretically gingernut is right. Eventually, after repeated infections and possibly a quinsy or two, the tonsils will scar up and episodes will become milder and fewer. The question is, how much discomfort and time off is the patient prepared to put up with in order to support gingernut's principles.
Lots of life's minor (and they may not feel so minor at the time) ills will get better on their own, without either medicine or surgery. Analgesics aren't strictly necessary for aches and pains that will resolve in time. Your child with otitis media will get better without antibiotics (though he'll stop crying a blessed 24 hours sooner with). Your wife's menopausal symptoms will eventually regress without HRT. Even a good-going boil will eventually burst with hot fomentations - neither antibiotics nor incision & drainage are REALLY needed.
Given that patient are more likely to receive a lecture than relief in gingernut's hospitals, it would indeed seem like a good idea to keep away!
Do I believe medicine to be an art? Yes indeed! Do I believe it to be science? Most emphatically! Do I believe in research and statistics? No one who hears the story of how John Snow took the handle off the Broad Street pump could fail to be inspired.
My colleague is an ideologue of the first water, a perfect apparatchik. I wish you joy of him.
For myself, I choose the unfashionable words of Hippocrates,
"To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always."
Last edited by Mac the Knife; 6th Sep 2006 at 15:41.
Reason: grammar