Relationship Between Serum Vitamin D Levels and Childhood Recurrent Tonsillitis

Abstract

Background: Many factors are associated with the development of recurrent tonsillitis. These include patient incompliance, premature cessation of antibiotherapy, inadequate antibiotic ab-sorbance, bacterial tolerance, bacterial load, bacterial biofilms, and immune system deficiencies.
Objective: To compare between recurrent tonsillitis patients undergoing three to seven tonsil-litis episodes per year within less than two years with controls having less than three tonsillitis episodes per year on the basis of vitamin D levels.
Study design: A retrospective review of clinical charts.
Methods: A total of 426 patients were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into two groups according to the number of acute tonsillitis episodes: Those who had less than three episodes per year (Group A) and those with three to seven episodes per year (Group B). The patients in Group A were assigned to the control group. Each patient in Group B was considered as a potential candidate for recurrent tonsillitis. The total number of episodes of acute tonsillitis within one year, demographic characteristics of the patients and the mean serum 25-hydroxyvi-tamin D levels of both groups were compared.
Results: Group A consisted of 277 patients (132 women, 145 men; mean age 4.40±2.46 years; range 2 to 10 years), while Group B consisted of 149 patients (66 women, 83 men; mean age 5.22±2.26 years; range 2 to 10 years). The mean serum vitamin D levels of Group A and Group B were 57.83±23.10 nmol/L and 48.03±31.36 nmol/L, respectively. Serum vitamin D level of Group B was lower than the Vitamin D levels of Group A which was statistically significant (p=0.001, p<0.01, respectively).
Conclusion: This is the first study investigating vitamin D levels among patients for the diagnosis of recurrent tonsillitis during the follow-up. However, further prospective randomized-controlled studies are conducted to gain a better understanding as to whether vitamin D supple-mentation would reduce the tonsillectomy rates in the diagnosis of recurrent tonsillitis.