Participants
Of the 69 children on the waiting list for tonsillectomy 44 responded
and did not attend school or nursery during lockdown. The mean child age
at listing was 7.6 years (range 1.9 - 14.9 years). The cohort contained
20 females and 24 males. The mean number of days on the waiting list was
144.2 days (range 62 - 279 days) and tonsillitis episodes 12 months
prior to lockdown was 8.25 (range 3 - 18 episodes). All patients met the
SIGN criteria for tonsillectomy (Figure 1)(9). Four
patients had also been diagnosed with concurrent obstructive sleep
apnoea, no patients were immunosuppressed, had diabetes or cardiac
disease.