Norman Swan

So it turns out that tonsils are an important part of our immune system.

The question is, do we harm ourselves by removing them?

Yeah, and until recently, there weren't very many studies really looking at the long-term effects of tonsillectomy.

Mostly, they looked at the benefits of tonsillectomy in people who've been having recurrent infections and their life was miserable and so on.

And in kids with obstructive breathing, there are clear benefits of a child getting a better night's sleep.

It turns out, though, there are some long-term effects of tonsillectomy.

There are probably increased risks of allergic disease, infectious disease, no increased risk of cancer as far as we can see.

There have been quite sophisticated studies looking at this.

For example, in one study of tens of thousands of people, there was an increased risk of irritable bowel syndrome and tonsil removal.

But you have to remember that people who have their tonsils out are not normal, healthy people.

Well, they're normal in every sense except that their tonsils become infected.

They may be snoring.

They may have reduced sleep.

There may be other reasons why their tonsils have become infected and therefore are the conditions they get later in life because of the biological makeup or because the tonsils are removed.

And it's really hard to define that.

One study in particular used a technique called Mendelian randomization, which is really creating a synthetic randomized trial to see whether or not there is a true effect, cause and effect, of removing tonsils on various downstream conditions in life.

And they found it hard to differentiate long-term effects from, in fact, the effect of having recurrent tonsillitis.

So they found it pretty safe.

Look, bottom line, it looks as though it's safe if you need to have it.

Indeed.