LATE SECONDARY TONSILLAR HEMORRHAGE: I. STUDIES OF PROTHROMBIN AND VITAMIN K

Abstract

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy are not infrequently complicated by secondary hemorrhage occurring generally on the sixth or the seventh day. This bleeding is a nuisance for both the patient and the physician and occasionally may be serious. Until recently little was known etiologically concerning its occurrence. It was accepted as an unavoidable concomitant in a variable percentage of cases. Of course, there are several factors which distinguish tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy from other surgical procedures. For instance, after no operation elsewhere in the body does the surgeon leave two or three broad, open wounds without protection, to heal by second intention, and then practically starve the patient because the pain precludes proper nutrition unless acetylsalicylic acid or some other analgesic drug is given continuously. At the Pharyngology Research Laboratory of Columbia University, which was established through the efforts of Prof. John. D. Kernan, my co-workers and I have been conducting investigations of