[verulito]

Mine were removed when I was 2 because they were huge! Like all surgery, it comes with risks and tradeoffs. It's great that we have a better idea of what the risks are now but that's not a reason not to do the surgery. Let's not forget that it's still a well tolerated procedure that confers some benefit to the right patients. We're not removing them for fun.

What benefit is that? Large tonsils occlude the airway, causing sleep breathing disruptions. The impact of those disruptions isn't visible but we know it is very harmful, particularly to children since they're still developing. We can avoid those developmental problems by removing the tonsils. I don't want to go into it here in too much detail but "developmental problems" is not a small thing, we're talking about structural changes to the skull, learning difficulties, behavior problems, etc.

An open question is how bad does the occlusion need to be before it justifies removing the tonsils. I don't know the answer to that question. I'd say bad. And that happens increasingly often because large tonsils have a strong correlation with allergies to begin with. Chronic infections are more a complication of the original problem, not the cause of it. And that's not even touching the damage these infections can do to the sinus cavities.