ASSESSMENT OF TONSIL VOLUME WITH TRANSCERVICAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY IN BOTH CHILDREN AND ADULTS - A PROSPECTIVE CLINICAL RESEARCH

Tonsillectomy is a common procedure performed on both adults and children. Recurrent tonsillitis, snoring and obstructive sleep apnea is among the most important indications for this surgery. Tonsil volume, in addition to recurrent tonsillitis frequency, are both considered in deciding tonsillectomy operation. Moreover, recent studies showed a correlation between tonsil hypertrophy and tonsillitis frequency. For this reason, a reliable assessment of tonsil volume is crucial both during clinical follow-up and surgery decision.

Today, a number of clinical staging systems are used to assess tonsil volume; with 'Friedman Scale' and 'Brodsky Scale' being the most commonly used systems. Those staging systems employ physical examination and are graded on palatine tonsils' midline extension. In other words, clinical staging uses just the transverse length of tonsils and vertical length and depth are dismissed. In addition, other factors such as patient non-compliance, size of the tongue and tongue base, hyperactive gag reflex and trismus make a clinical assessment difficult. For those reasons, a correct clinical assessment of tonsil volume is not always conceivable.

Ultrasonography (USG) was used in a limited number of studies about tonsil tissue assessment despite high patient compliance, low cost and its non-radioactive nature. Also, those studies include only the pediatric population.In this study, we would like to assess the success of USG in objective measurement of tonsil volume in both pediatric and adult populations and comparison of those results with clinical findings