(A Review of 300 Cases Pre-treated with Styplon)

Tonsils have been removed since very early times. Cornelius Celsus, writing early in the first century A.D. gives a good description of how the operation may be done “___ _ being covered with a thin membrane (they) should be scratched round and torn out by the finger, but if they are not got rid of thus, then one must seize upon them with a knife.” Hippocrates advised the opening of the tonsils and not removal. Galen advised the use of snare in amputating enlarged tonsils while Aroetaum recommended the use of ligatures. Paul of Hegina stated that the tonsils may be removed only after the subsidence of inflammation when the tonsils have become “white and tough ” rather than “soft, reddened and angry”. Ambrose Pare advised incision and drainage of quinsy. Peter Love of Glasgow advocated the same surgical treatment. The first guillotine was designed by Physich of Philadelphia in 1927 and tonsillectomy by guillotine technique remained the usual practice all over the world. The aim of the operation is to remove the tonsil completely and nothing but the tonsil. In general it can be stated that during the last 20 years the tendency has been for a changeover from the guillotine operation to the dissection operation (Scott Brown, W.G.). The reasons for this are (1) If there is much peritonsillar fibrosis it may be impossible to enucleate the tonsi