Influence of tonsillectomy on the progression of mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis

Little information is available about the efficacy of tonsillectomy on long-term renal survival of patients with primary IgA nephropathy (IgAN).

In this retrospective cohort study, we considered 61 patients with IgAN who had tonsillectomy (n = 15) or not (n = 46) and compared them with 121 control patients with mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MesGN) free of IgA deposits, who had tonsillectomy (n = 49) or not (n = 72). We evaluated the progression from a normal function [estimated glomerular filtration rate 60-220 mL/min/1.73 m(2), chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 1 and 2] to a moderate renal dysfunction in CKD stage 3, which was considered the outcome.

The mean duration of follow-up was 250 months (12-300 months) in the whole group of 182 patients. The survival to progression to stage 3 was 88% after 10 years, 71% after 20 years and 53% after 25 years. It was 72% after 20 years in both groups. Tonsillectomy was not significantly associated with CKD progression. Significant prognostic factors were age (P = 0.01), initial CKD stage (P = 0.03), proteinuria (P = 0.03), persistent proteinuria (P < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.01). In the multivariate analysis (Cox model), there was no significant effect of tonsillectomy adjusted for the type of glomerulonephritis, initial CKD stage, persistent proteinuria, diastolic blood pressure and age. Only persistent proteinuria adjusted for the other factors was significantly associated with CKD progression (hazard ratio of 6.2, 95% confidence interval 3.1-12.7, P < 0.001).

Tonsillectomy was not associated with a different progression rate of IgAN nor of MesGN after 20 years of follow-up.