OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of post-tonsillectomy bleeding in our institution and to describe the clinical characteristics, tonsillectomy techniques and post-tonsillectomy bleeding intervention in these patients.

METHODS:
Design: Observational descriptive study
Setting: Tertiary private hospital
Population: All patients who were treated for post-tonsillectomy bleeding were retrospectively reviewed from medical records of all patients who had undergone tonsillectomy between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009. Age and sex, indication for surgery, tonsil grade, Body Mass Index (BMI), surgical technique, post-operative medications, length of hospital stay, interval between tonsillectomy and onset of bleeding and interventions to address post-operative bleeding were noted.

RESULTS: Of the 662 patients who underwent tonsillectomy, 37 (5.6%) were managed for post-operative hemorrhage. Most had grade 2 or 3 tonsils (18 or 48.6% and 16 or 43.2% respectively) and were obese (25 or 67.5%). The highest proportion of post-operative bleeding was 9.2% for bipolar cauterization technique (18 of 196 patients) followed by 7.4% with cold knife, monopolar cauterization and suturing (11 of 148 patients); 6.9% with harmonic scalpel (2 of 29 patients); 6.5% with monopolar and bipolar cauterization (3 of 46 patients), and 2.8% for cold knife or Fischer knife (3 of 109 patients). Seven patients (18.9%) required blood transfusion. Onset of bleeding occurred between 4-12 days following surgery (mean: 8 days). Possible causes of bleeding included heavy physical activity and cough but most had no identifiable cause. Majority of the patients (29 out of 37) required surgical exploration under general anesthesia.

CONCLUSION: Post-tonsillectomy bleeding is still a clinically significant complication despite advances in surgical techniques. Surgeons must always consider trade-offs between benefits and risks of the procedure and be continually vigilant of this potentially serious complication.