Wound Healing after Tonsillectomy – A Review of the Literature

Tonsillectomy is a commonly performed surgical procedure. Despite this, very little research has been done to study wound healing after tonsillectomy. An Ovid MEDLINE search of the English literature was conducted using the search terms “tonsillectomy” or “tonsil” and “wound healing" from which 31 published studies were included for analysis. This included both limited animal and human models assessing wound healing post tonsillectomy. The majority of current wound healing assessments in humans investigating tonsillectomy wound healing involve serial direct clinical examinations of the oral cavity. Different patient and surgical factors have been shown to affect wound healing and are presented. There is some research to suggest the administration of adjunctive treatment options in the post-operative period may be beneficial to tonsillectomy wound healingand these are discussed in detail.