Talat Mehmood, Muhammad Irshad ul Haq.
Clinical Presentation and Management of Peritonsillar Sepsis.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;10(6):209-12.

Peritonsillar sepsis (PTS) can be divided into peritonsillitis and peritonsillar abscess (PTA). On an average 36 patients per year suffered from PTS. The comparative incidence of peritonsillar infection with the infection of tonsil is towards decline. Most victims belonged to middle class low socio-economical status, were less educated. One hundred and eighty patients with confirmed clinical diagnosis of peritonsillar sepsis have been analysed. Sixty-three patients (35%) were found to be suffering from peritonsillitis and 117 patients (65% ) from peritonsillar abscess. Male patients outnumbered (70%) the females (30%). Overwhelming majority (85%) were adults between 16-30 years of age. All but one were unilateral and 90% cases presented with left sided lesion. lpsilateral odynophagia, tender jugulo-digastric lymph node and fever- feeling were the commonest complaints in all followed by ipsilateral otalgia and trismus (64%), plummy voice and drooling of saliva (45%) and discharging abscess (8%). Peritonsillitis cases were managed conservatively and out of them 7 cases (11%) had recurrence. Amongst all PTA cases, early lesions (38) were aspirated by needle and further treatment was like that of peritonsillitis; while massive PTA (79 cases) had to be hospitalized for parenteral therapy to overcome the tight trismus and subsequently were subjected to classical incision and drainage procedure. Mean recurrence rate with PTA was 19%. No complication occurred during this study.

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