Tonsilitus and smoking question.

[paladinx5]

I am 29 years old. I am a heavy smoker.  Sometimes I am in a room many hours just smoking in front of a computer in an enclosed room.  I have never had problems with my tonsils before,  but now I am getting infected tonsils almost every month.   this is about my fourth or fifth bout of tonsillitis.   each time i take medication to treat it and it clears up.  My question is.  Do you think it is possible that my tonsils are being irritated by my heavy cigarette smoking and are becoming more vulnerable to infection?  I want and am willing to give up smoking.  I really do not want to get the surgery because i have heard its painful and there is a risk of bleeding to death. I am not sure how that is even possible,  The tonsils would appear to have small blood vessels.  Kind of a scary thought.

regards.

Paul.

[ENTMD]

I agree with you, Paul!  Keep them around if you can -- if for no other reason than the recover from a tonsillectomy is miserable.

[paladinx5]

  Thanks again for your response.  I will not take advantage and ask any more questions, even though a few are arising lol.  Again I appreciate your help and this service.   Hopefully not smoking anymore will allow me to avoid this procedure.   I still have the feeling the tonsils are there for a purpose, I rather keep them if I can.  

Regards,
Paul.

[ENTMD]

Thank you for the comments.

To answer your other question more completely, the tonsils have arteries and veins supplying them.  In the process of removing the tonsils, these are cauterized or ligated.  If a large vessel happens to be present and the clot or ligature fail, significant bleeding could result.  Also, the tonsils are located not too far from the carotid arteries.  An aberrant carotid (or careless surgery) could result in this being injured during the operation -- very bad.  These are all very remote risks, but they are plausible.

[paladinx5]

  Thank you for your response.  this must be a very tiresome job for you guys answering so many different questions.  I appreciate your service and the time you guys take out to answer questions.  I am going to quit smoking and keep my fingers crossed that  my tonsils are not totally damaged yet.  

  For anyone who might want to answer a side question.  how do people actually bleed to death from a tonsillectomy?  It just makes no real sense to me.  Does an infection open up other blood vessels in the neck or something?

[ENTMD]

This is kind of a no-brainer...yes, the smoking could be doing this to you!  Why don't you go ahead and quit and see what happens?  Your risk of dying from the cigarettes is much higher than your risk of dying from a tonsillectomy anyway.