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Children who have tonsils removed more likely to gain weight
Baku, March 4 (AZERTAC). Children who have their tonsils taken out are more likely to gain weight after the procedure and battle weight problems when they get older, new research finds.
Tonsillectomies, or the removal of the tonsils, are the most common form of major surgery done on kids, the authors write in the Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery paper.
Researchers looked at nine previous studies spanning 40 years and involving 795 children aged 0 to 18 years old. The kids were described as either overweight or of normal weight, and had undergone a tonsillectomy or a related operation called an adenotonsillectomy.
In one set of studies of 127 children who`d had their tonsils removed, the participants gained between 5.5 and 8.2 percent of their body mass index. Another involving 419 patients showed weight gain in 46 to 100 percent. A third collection of research found that 50 to 75 percent of the 249 patients put on pounds after tonsil surgery.
"The difference is about 7 percent -- it`s significant, but a tonsillectomy doesn`t cause obesity," said AOL`s children`s health expert Dr. Jim Sears, a pediatrician and co-host of the talk show "The Doctors." "We`re not sure why there`s an association. ... It`s not a huge problem."
The participants were tracked for various periods of time after the trials were over, and there were differences in the way researchers defined the term "overweight."
Study author Dr. Anita Jeyakumar says there are a number of potential explanations for the trend, including the hyperactivity associated with tonsillitis that might go away after the operation and lead to weight gain, and the difficulty kids with swollen tonsils have eating.
"When the diseased tonsils are removed, the child then is able to consume additional calories," she said in a statement. "Parents may also feel impelled to overfeed their child when recovering from chronic illness or surgery, further adding to caloric intake and weight gain."