Advantages of Tonsillectomy done under Local Anesthesia compared to General Anesthesia in Adults

Background/Objectives: Tonsillectomy using local anesthesia (local tonsillectomy) is a safe and effective alternative to general anesthesia in the healthy cooperative teenage or adult patients. Blood loss, morbidity, complications and patient satisfaction were better in some studies with tonsillectomies done under general anesthesia. Design: Comparative case series analysis study of two groups of patients who underwent tonsillectomies under local and general anesthesia during the study period of 57 months from March 2007 to December 2011. Materials and methods: Overall 1,349 cases of tonsillectomies done for chronic tonsillitis were included under the study. Three hundred and sixty-seven cases operated under general anesthesia and 982 cases operated under local anesthesia were compared. The parameters compared were duration of surgery, blood loss and the mean pain visual analog score. Results: Significant difference in duration of surgery, blood loss during surgery and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were seen in the two groups with local anesthesia scoring over general anesthesia. Conclusion: Tonsillectomy under local anesthesia is a good alternate for the procedure under general anesthesia with limited resources and in cooperative adults.