Prognosis of tonsillectomy in patients with IgA nephropathy

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is a type of chronic glomerulonephritis characterized by IgA deposits mainly in the mesangial area. It does not have so favourable a prognosis as was initially thought. This nephropathy is one of the diseases affected by tonsillar focal infections, and there have been patients in whom tonsillectomy has been effective. In this study, 24 patients with IgAN were followed for more than 2 years after tonsillectomy and studied clinicopathologically. Remission of proteinuria was observed in 41.7% of the patients 6 months after surgery and in 50.0% 2 years after surgery. At 2 years after surgery, patients with minor and focal segmental renal lesions showed a significantly higher rate of remission of proteinuria than patients with diffuse renal lesions. There was no statistically significant difference between positive and negative patients in the rate of remission of proteinuria based on any parameter of the tonsillar provocation test at any time after surgery.