The woman’s tonsils grew 40 years after removal

Here’s a horror story for anyone who got their tonsils out when they were young. A CNN article published this week details a woman whose tonsils have grown decades later, requiring a second surgery for removal.

According to CNN, Katy Golden first had her tonsils removed in 1983 at the age of five. More than forty years later, Golden’s doctor discovered regenerated tonsils, which likely worsened his sore throat. Fortunately, Golden’s second surgery went well, and tonsil regrowth rarely happens in general.

Tonsil they are the pair of round and fleshy masses located in the back of our throat. They serve a similar function to our lymph nodes, which contain white blood cells that defend against germs that enter through our mouth or nose. Sometimes our tonsils can cause problems, however. They can become chronically inflamed and infected, for example, or grow so naturally large that they obstruct our airways while we sleep, causing sleep apnea. So doctors remove them from time to time.

Tonsillitis-related problems often appear earlier in life, and surgery is generally easier for children, so the procedure tends to happen in childhood. Some doctors, in order to ease the burden of side effects such as pain and shorten recovery time, will opt to partially remove most of a person’s tonsillitis (a partial or intracapsular tonsillectomy). healthy (a total tonsillectomy). While this procedure has its advantages, it does not leave open the potential risk of tonsils growing back.

According to CNN, Golden had her tonsils removed at five to help alleviate some inner ear problems, with no major complications afterward. She’s not sure exactly when the tonsils came back, but she remembers noticing flaps in the back of her throat years ago, which often became “super inflamed” when she got a sore throat. This past fall, he decided to see an otolaryngologist (an ear, nose and throat specialist) after developing a particularly sore throat. And that’s when his doctor made the surprising discovery — a discovery Golden couldn’t believe at first.

“I didn’t think that was a possibility. I was in disbelief and shocked that tonsils that I thought were gone were causing my pain,” Golden told CNN. “She’s like, ‘Well, they’ve got to grow up.’ And I thought that was just the weirdest answer ever.

It is estimated that the regrowth of the tonsil takes place up to 6% of time after a partial tonsillectomy. Some research has suggested that having a high number of respiratory infectionseat a lot of sugary foodsand have tonsil surgery at an earlier age can increase the risk of tonsil regrowth. Golden’s doctor, otolaryngologist Cynthia Hayes, argues that the type of surgery used to remove the tonsils can also contribute to regrowth.

In the 1980s, tonsils were often removed only with a scalpel or bladed tools, which were known as “cold techniques”. Doctors these days often rely on newer “hot techniques,” such as coblation, which uses low-temperature radiofrequency energy to remove soft tissue, for tonsil removal. Some research has shown that removing coblation tonsils seems to reduce the risk of tonsillitis. complications such as pain compared to traditional methods. Hayes went the extra mile this time to make sure Golden’s tonsils wouldn’t come back again.

“I dissected down to the capsule of the tonsil and removed all the tissue,” Hayes told CNN. “Obviously, I don’t have a magic ball, but I don’t expect it to happen again.”

As is often the case for adults who have had their tonsils removed, Golden’s recovery was more painful this time. But she went back to the same old method she used as a child to help her recover faster: chewing a lot of bubble gum. And I was expecting a less terrible sore throat from now on.