Determining the Impact of Platelet-rich Plasma Therapy on Short-‎term Postoperative Outcomes of Pediatric ‎Tonsillectomy Patients in Egypt

Background: Tonsillectomy is considered one of the most common major operations performed in pediatric population. Unfortunately, tonsillectomy is often associated with severe pain that may delay the patient discharge and influence his ability to return to the normal daily activities together with a 2–4% risk of hemorrhage. Among promising healing promoting agents is Platelet-rich plasma (PRP). It is considered as a potential adjuvant therapy improving the healing of surgical wounds and contains multiple growth and healing factors that are released upon their activation.

Methods: This was a prospective randomized controlled study carried on forty patients who underwent tonsillectomy alone or adenotonsillectomy. In each patient, PRP was used on one side " test side " and other side was used as a control. The test side was randomly allocated in all patients, so the results will be of the 40 patients, total sides 80, (test side 40; 20 right side and 20 left side).

Results: Our results revealed that mucosal healing was noted to be better in PRP treated side, particularly on 5th and 10th post-operative day, with documented less incidence of secondary post-operative hemorrhage. Pain scores were less on the PRP treated side through the post-operative period, but were statistically significant only on the 5th day postoperative.

Conclusions: The preliminary results from this study, supported by literature, have revealed that PRP was beneficial in the amelioration of post-tonsillectomy pain, improvement of healing and bleeding risk in pediatric tonsillectomy patients.