[The value of waiting in spontaneous remission of recurrent tonsillitis without associated adenoid pathology]

In order to assess the rate of spontaneous remission in children with recurrent acute tonsillitis (RAT), we revised the pediatric patients who were seen between 1994 and 1999. For this purpose, 123 cases that were on the waiting list for tonsillectomy under the indication of RAT without associated adenoid disease were selected. Only 23 (18.7%) of the children who were included in the study were removed from the waiting list after a mean time of 9 months because of spontaneous remission of the disease. Thus, there is no justification for claiming that long waiting lists for tonsillectomy are frequently associated with spontaneous remission of RAT.