THROAT SWABS IN CHRONIC TONSILLITIS - A TIME-HONORED PRACTICE BEST FORGOTTEN

We have estimated that in 1995 more than pound 2 million was spent by the National Health Service on throat swabs used to investigate chroni c tonsillitis in the UK. This study was devised to assess the value of this investigation, The surface microflora, obtained using a throat s wab, was compared with the microflora of the deep tonsil in 30 cases o f chronic tonsillitis, None of the throat swabs grew pathogenic organi sms, while in 16 cases, heavy growths of recognised pathogens were gro wn from the tonsillar tissue. This paper demonstrates that throat swab s have little value in the management of chronic tonsillitis, and if t he investigation was omitted in this condition, a substantial saving c ould be made.