My tonsils are often inflamed. Can they be removed?

A netizen asked: My daughter is 4 years old. She is usually weak and often catches colds. Every time she catches a cold, her tonsils become inflamed and she needs injections and medication for a week or so before she gets better.

A friend suggested that since tonsils are of little use anyway, instead of having them inflamed frequently, it would be better to just remove them, so her child did the same.

Does what she said make sense? Will it have any effect on the child?

Tonsils are not the "useless" organ as your friend said, it is an immune organ of the human body.

Especially in childhood, the immune system is active and has the function of defending and resisting the invasion of pathogens into the body.

When the "enemy" - bacteria invade, the tonsils will rise up to resist. If the "enemy" is strong and invades repeatedly, the tonsils will be defeated and occupied. Inflammation will occur, and redness, swelling, pain, suppuration, etc. will appear, and the child will also develop symptoms such as fever accordingly.

Generally speaking, anti-infection and related symptomatic treatment can be used, but some children's tonsils are repeatedly inflamed and swollen, and they cannot shrink after the inflammation subsides.

When children reach puberty, as their body's immune system improves, the tonsils complete their "sentinel" mission and will shrink on their own.

Removal of tonsils during childhood can weaken local disease resistance and even affect systemic immune function.

Therefore, children's tonsils should not be removed casually.

However, resection may be considered if the following circumstances apply.

①Acute tonsillitis recurs repeatedly, more than four times a year, each time causing a high fever.

② Excessive enlargement of the tonsils causes children to have difficulty breathing, swallowing, and slurred speech, and they may snore when sleeping, breathe with their mouths open, and wake up due to shortness of breath.

③ The tonsils become lesions, and each inflammation is accompanied by systemic diseases such as nephritis, myocarditis, arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

In addition, tonsillectomy may also be considered in cases such as tonsil tumors and peritonsillar inflammation.