Morbidity and patient characteristics on acute presentation with sore throat: a multicentre national audit

Sore throat is one of the most common reasons for an acute ear, nose and throat (ENT) admission. Recurrent tonsillitis can be treated definitively by tonsillectomy, but patients must fulfil Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) guidelines to be eligible. The aim of this audit was to assess the throat morbidity of patients admitted with 'sore throat' to ENT wards across Scotland.

A multicentre prospective audit was conducted across six Scottish ENT units over 4 months to assess demographics, risk factors and episode history in patients admitted with sore throat.

Some 279 patients were included: 63.9% were for admitted for tonsillitis, 35.7% for quinsy and 0.4% for deep neck infection. The mean age was 30.1 years (range 6-73 years). Most had reported 0-1 episodes of tonsillitis in the previous 4 years (58.5%-76.6%), with 41.3%-66.2% reporting no antibiotic treatment for sore throats in that time. Prior to admission, 48.7% had been prescribed antibiotics by a general practitioner (GP), and 16.1% had a history of hospital admission for tonsillitis. Only 25.6% of tonsillitis admissions met SIGN tonsillectomy criteria.

Most patients admitted with sore throat in Scotland had low numbers of previous throat complaints. Fewer than half had received antibiotics from a GP before admission. One-quarter met SIGN criteria for tonsillectomy.