Enhanced Recovery After Tonsillectomy
Summary: Approximately 100 million tonsillectomies have been performed worldwide in the century since the procedure was popularised. In Australia, tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures, with over 16,500 operations occurring at public hospitals annually. In the United States, about 186,000 procedures are performed on an outpatient basis every year(1). In spite of the fact that tonsillectomy remains a very common surgical procedure, there is little evidence to support traditional perioperative practices. Currently, some patients are given fasting instructions by the hospital/nursing staff and some patients are given fasting instructions by the anaesthetists per standard international guidelines.
This study is the first of its kind that investigates perioperative fasting for patients undergoing tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy.