Bacteriology of chronic Tonsillitis

Objective: The objective of the study is to assess the prevalence of microorganisms in the chronic tonsillitis.

Patients and Methods: prospective study that conducted on 54 children 29 male and 25 female their age ranged from 4 to 12 years suffering from chronic tonsillitis that had planned for elective tonsillectomy. patients were prepared for tonsillectomy operation, tonsillar surface swab is taken and stored in a sterile tubes. then tonsils were dissected and separated from tonsillar bed and stored in sterile jar. Blood sample taken from every patient aseptically by venipuncture 2 minutes after excision of both tonsils. Tonsillar surface swabs and tonsillar core swabs were cultured on the following media:Sheep blood agar, MacConkey’s agar and Chocolate agar. Blood culture: Two milliliters of blood were cultured aerobically and then sub cultured on blood agar and MaCconckey’s agar.Antibiotic sensitivity tests were carried for pathogenic isolates.

Results: On comparing the culture results of surface and tonsillar core swabs regarding the type of isolated pathogenic microorganisms, core swabs revealed pathogenic organisms in 81.5% (44 cases) of the studied cases, while tonsillar surface swabs detected pathogenic organisms in 44.4%(24 cases)
the present study revealed that Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly grown organism in the core of the tonsils as well as surface cultures. Group A β hemolytic streptococci was isolated from 10 patients (18.5%), 2 cases yielded the organism in surface swabs and 8 in the tonsillar core, E.coli was detected in tonsillar core of 2 patients and Klebsiella pneumoniae was detected in both surface and core swabs of only 2 patients. The results of blood culture obtained during tonsillectomy revealed that the incidence of bacteraemia was 7.4% yielded Staph. aureus.

Conclusion: In conclusion, there is discrepancy between tonsillar surface and tonsillar core culture. Post-tonsillectomy bacteraemia occurs in small percentage of patients.