The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-03
Your Health
By WILLIAM BRADY. NJ. D.
ToNsTLLECTOMY

I took my two sons, aged eight and thirteen, to a nose and throat specialist to see if tonsillectomy would protect them from having colds. The specialist advised me that he could find no indication for tonsillectomy in either child. Would you mind explaining why you feel so strongly on the subject of ton- silectomyp Have you had an un- fortunate personal experience? My experience proves that at least one nose and throat specialist removes tonsilS only when he feels there IS definite need for the operation. Cw.J.
 Experience has proved that young men who have had operations on the nose and the throat, such as tonsillectonly, are more subject to respiratory infections than young men who have not had such opera tions" CSmiley). Forsyth found more respiratory infections ("cold" to you, "Cri" to mel in the course of a year in tonsillectomized students than in non-tonsillectomized stud ents of the same age. These are typical of numerous reports in mod ern medical literature, all of the same import.
 Nobody can possibly guess your identity, WI. from what l say here. so I'll say what have to say without apology. In the first place it was wrong in my opinion, to take the children to a specialist if, as your letter implies, their physician did not SO aGvise. In the next place, you assumed that you know as much as an ordinary" doctor knows about such things and, worse, you were willing to subject your children to the risk to life that is involved in every such major operation as removal of the tonsils, and on a wretched gamble at that. The medi- cal reports cited above show be- yond all question that tonsillectomy perpetrated upon the child on the of chance that it may make the child less susceptible to respiratory infections is a gamble indeed.
 No, my dear MT. ". J.. I have had no unfortunate personal or pro- fessional experience, but how many doctors have had tragic experience with the atrocity had rather try to forget.
 If my own throat, health or life, or my child's, were concerned I'd submit to tonsillectomy ONLY if there were reason to believe the condition malignant (cancerous). If the tonsils were merely infected, I'd choose electro-coagulation (diather- my) if the patient were old enough to cooperate with the physician, tonsillotomy (clipping of part or most of the tonsil if the patient were too young to cooperate. For merely enlarged (hypertrophied) tonsils and/or adenoids I'd choose X-ray treatment-especially if there were any evident impairment Of hearing or any middle ear infiam- nation.
 TonsilIotomy Casually done with the tonsillotome, snickersnee that slices of the portion of tonsil that obstructs breathing) is an instan- taneous operation. requires no gen. eral anesthesia, may be done with out even local anesthesia and with less pain that a patient suffers with extraction of a tooth, and involves no greater risk than does extraction of tooth.
 Finally, I contend-and I have plenty of evidence from current medical literature to support my contention - that the tonsillectomy atrocity attempting to remove every bit of tonsil tissue) is based on ignorance of pathology. There is no foundation for the notion that tonsil tissues in the throat Is in itself injurious or likely to become injurious to health is not removed. It is on that notion, my dear chil- drep, that the tonsillectomy atro- city is founded.
 Copyright l946 by John ?. Dille Co,)