Development of an evidence based protocol in managing adults with recurrent tonsillitis. (360G-Wellcome-101675_Z_13_Z)

In 2012, 20,000 adults in the UK had a tonsillectomy making it one of the 20 most commonly performed operations. There is large variation in national tonsillectomy rates and it is unclear whether this disparity is warranted or unwarranted. Investigation of paediatric tonsillectomy has shown variation related to surgeon preference. I hypothesise variation in adult tonsillectomy rates is related to unwarranted factors and aim to investigate the disparity through assessment of primary care referral and secondary care surgical listing patterns, after controlling for warranted risk factors for variation. Data will be extracted from Fluwatch, Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Hospital Episode Statistics databases. There is no disease specific patient reported outcome measure (PROM) for adults with recurrent tonsillitis. As a result it has not been possible to compare national standards of service provision for this condition or to definitively assess the clinical effectiveness of tonsillectomy. I aim to evaluate the psychometric properties of a German PROM (TOI-14) on a UK adult population to assess its validity in this role. The key goals are to understand the variations in management and develop a tool that accurately measures treatment for adults with recurrent tonsillitis.