The incidence of peritonsillar abscess recurrence and their relation with the type of treatment

Peritonsillar space infection can be occurred either as cellulitis or abscess formation. Antibiotic therapy, needle aspiration insicion, drainage and finally tonsillectomy are among the types of treatment, which may be carried out in this disease. When tonsillectomy was not done, the recurrence of peritonsillar abscess may be observed. The present study was set up to find out the recurrence rate of peritonsillar abscess with the type of treatment the patient is received. This study was done on 52 patients with peritonsillar space infection, 45 cases of these patients were presented with peritonsillar space abscess. The primary procedure such as recording personal demographic and previous medical treatment on this patient was done. These patients were home visited by doing that, the rate of recurrence, re-hospitalization, the possible duration of recurrence and elective tonsillectomy were evaluated, these patients were also clinically examined. The gathered informations were analyzed by statistical software (SPSS). From 45 peritonsillar space abscess, 8 cases (17.7%) were recognized as recurrence, from these numbers of patients 6 cases (13.3%) and 2 cases (4.4%) had once and twice recurrence respectively. The highest recurrence was seen among the patients with drug treatment. There was a meaningful correlation between the method of treatment and the rate of recurrence incidence (P<0.05). The highest rate of recurrence was among 20-29 years of age. The prevalence of peritonsillar space abscess in women and men were 28.9% and 71.1% respectively. Winter and spring were the seasons with highest incidence. The rate recurrence of this abnormality among men and women were 15.6% and 23% respectively. It is recommended the patient with peritonsillar space abscess to have tonsillectomy especially later in adulthood, because of high incidence of recurrence. In cases where that abnormality is controlled by drug treatment alone, the tonsillectomy should be taken into consideration.