Walter C. Alvarez

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE RESULTS OF TONSILLECTOMIES IN ADULT LIFE: OBSERVATIONS IN MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED CASES

What are the indications for tonsillectomy in adult life? Why is it that some persons are greatly benefited by the operation, while others get no help? Is there any way in which we can distinguish between the two groups when they first come to us for advice? After puzzling over these questions for a long time and finding little help in the literature, it occurred to me, about two years ago, that I might get the information I desired by questioning the patients who were daily passing through my office with their tonsils already removed. They could tell me why they had consented to have the operation, what they had been promised, and what they had obtained. The objection to this method of study is that presumably only the failures would be represented, because those persons who had obtained good results would no longer have need of a physician. Although