Tonsillectomy History in Hodgkin's Disease

Of 174 patients recently treated for Hodgkin's disease, a history of tonsillectomy was obtained in 52 per cent. Except for a low rate of tonsillectomy in younger patients, statistically significant variations from the overall rate were absent when tonsillectomy was correlated with other features such as sex, extent of disease, presence versus absence of constitutional symptoms, primary site of involvement and histologic subclassification. A comparison of patients and matched siblings did not reveal a difference in tonsillectomy rate although a number of patients with intact tonsils had healthy matched siblings with a history of tonsillectomy. The review failed to demonstrate a relation between tonsillectomy and the clinical features of Hodgkin's disease and did not support the hypothesis that prior tonsillectomy increases susceptibility to this disease by removal of a "lymphoid barrier." Also of interest were two sibling pairs without tonsillectomy in whom Hodgkin's disease developed coincidentally within a span of one year despite separate residences.