Prevalence of smoke exposure amongst children who undergo tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis

Purpose: The hypothesis tested was that smoke exposure has a detrimental effect on the developing upper respiratory tract. The purpose of this study was to determine if more children undergoing tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis had smoke exposure in comparison to a control group of children undergoing hernia repair. Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study. Medical records of children less than 15 years of age that underwent tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis at Penn State Hershey Medical Center from July 2009 to October 2012 were retrospectively reviewed to determine exposure to smoking contacts. Records of children less than 15 years of age that underwent hernia repair surgery at this facility during the same time, were also retrospectively reviewed for smoke exposure. Results: A total of 256 children who underwent tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis and 241 children who underwent hernia repair surgery met the inclusion criteria. Of the children in the tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis group, 121 (47.27%) had previous smoke exposure, compared to 67 (27.80%) in the hernia repair group. Further analysis of the data using logistic regression yielded an odds ratio of 2.49 (P= 0.004), indicating that children with smoke exposure had more than twice the odds of having tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis compared to those with no exposure. Conclusions: Exposure to smoking contacts was more common in children who underwent tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis than children who underwent hernia repair surgery. Future studies could address the relation of smoke exposure quantity to health outcomes in children.