AB083. What the blogosphere says about adult tonsillectomy?

Background: Blogging is an informal form of online journalism often formatted to mimic a diary. The Blogosphere refers to the collective plethora of information provided by bloggers as part of an inter-connected network. Analyses of blogger experiences involving various surgical disciplines have been published in the medical literature. Tonsillectomy with its noted postoperative morbidity has generated extensive comment on the Web but the content has not been examined in a scientific manner. The aim of our study was to determine what the Blogosphere has to say about adult tonsillectomy and to report on whether we can use this information to improve our post-surgical care.

Methods: The worldwide web was searched using Google’s search to find personal blogs ranked by relevance. Only written blogs in the English language were included.

Results: Twenty blogs were identified. Sixteen (80%) originated from the United States, with 3 (15%)) from the United Kingdom. Sixteen (80%) of bloggers were female. Median age of bloggers was 29.5. Of symptoms cited pain (100%) and the inability to eat (90%) were the most frequent. The average pain score where available was 8.8. Complications occurred in 15% of patients with two post tonsillectomy bleeds and one infection. No patient regretted his or her decision to have a tonsillectomy.

Conclusions: The blogosphere offers a wealth of practical data for patients embarking on tonsillectomy both positive and negative. It is important for ENT surgeons to stay in tune with the blogosphere as this unregulated easily accessible source of information is both a friend and a foe.

Keywords: Adult tonsillectomy; blogosphere; head and neck surgery