Impact of the National Guidelines for Tonsillectomy Care

More than 500,000 ambulatory tonsillectomies are performed yearly in the U.S. In 2011, the American Academy of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery published guidelines for high-quality tonsillectomy care that recommend use of dexamethasone to prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting, avoidance of perioperative prophylactic antibiotics, implementation of effective pain-management strategies, and monitoring of postoperative hemorrhage rates.

To assess the effect of the guidelines, researchers reviewed data from the Pediatric Health Information System database for children aged 1 to 18 years who underwent tonsillectomy at 29 children's hospitals between 2009 and 2013. The analysis included nearly 112,000 children who were discharged the s…