Main Results
The number of tonsillitis episodes experienced during the lockdown 2
months (mean 0.84 SEM 0.17) was significantly less than in the 2
preceding months (mean 1.80 SEM 0.17) (p=0.0001) (Figure 2). In terms of
antibiotic requirement for tonsillitis, there was a significant decrease
in patient use from the 2 months prior to lockdown (70% of patients)
versus the 2 months of lockdown (32% of patients) (p=0.0002). None of
the patients attended hospital during the lockdown period as a result of
tonsillitis compared with 4 patients in the prior 2 months. No patients
suffered a tonsillitis related complication in either period.
The average number of children per household was 2.3. There was no
significant difference in the number of children per household in the
cohort of children who suffered with tonsillitis during the lockdown
(2.4 per household) compared to those who were tonsillitis free (2.2 per
household) (p>0.05).
All parents wanted to go ahead with the tonsillectomy when asked.
Parents were asked whether they would like their child’s tonsillectomy
to be during the COVID-19 outbreak or after the outbreak. Thirty-one
parents were happy for their child’s tonsillectomy to occur during the
COVID-19 outbreak with 13 wanting to postpone until after the outbreak
(Figure 3). The group who elected to delay their procedure until after
the outbreak had a significantly lower average number of tonsillitis
episodes during the lockdown than the group who wanted surgery during
the outbreak (0.08 vs 1.6 episodes respectively, p=0.0001). This was not
the case for the 2 month period prior to lockdown (p>0.05)
(Figure 4).