Norman Swan

Yeah, we didn't have a very big kitchen table, so...

We didn't have a kitchen table.

We couldn't afford one.

Yeah.

So the tonsils can be an annoying organ, particularly in childhood, repeated infections.

They can become enlarged, obstruct breathing, all sorts of issues with tonsils.

And the temptation has always been to remove them to improve your quality of life and perhaps risk of serious infection occurring like a tonsillar abscess, for example, in the neck.

But it turns out that tonsils are not a vestigial organ.

Yeah, they're part of our defences against the external world, infections coming in to the body.

Yeah, so it's not surprising they become infected themselves.

But it turns out that they are part of the way our immune system works.

They produce cytokines, which are the short-acting or even long-acting chemicals which stimulate and control our immune system.

They're involved in B cells, which are cells which produce antibodies.

They're involved in...

in the production of IgA, which is again not surprising because IgA is the antibody that helps us with surface immunity.

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.