A Bacteriologic Study of Chronic Tonsillitis

Abstract

The etiology of chronic tonsillitis was investigated in a series of 150 patients. The superficial swab culture and the cut surface tonsillar culture of each patient were examined. 64 per cent of the cases contained pathogens. The investigations revealed that the most common causative organism was Staphylococcus aureus (33 per cent) with beta hemolytic Streptococcus second in number (30 per cent). Most of the isolated staphylococci were found to be resistant to the common antibiotics, whereas the majority of the streptococci were sensitive. The results of the two cultures were identical in 58.6 per cent of the cases. In 29.3 per cent of the cases pathogens were isolated from the interior of the tonsils, but not from the surface. This has led us to conclude that superficial tonsillar cultures can be misleading in chronic tonsillitis.