Table 1.

Patient characteristics

Factor	n = 143
Age (years)a	16 (8, 25)
Male	74 (52%)
Indication for tonsillectomy
Hypertrophic tonsils	48 (34%)
Recurrent tonsillitis	43 (30%)
Other indicationb	6 (4%)
Mixed indications of these	46 (32%)
Tonsillectomy and adenotomy	39 (27%)
Self‐reported allergy	63/127 (50%)
Food	14/109 (13%)
Drug	12/109 (11%)
Seasonal, i.e., pollen	10/109 (9%)
Perennial, i.e., animal or house dust mite	5/109 (5%)
Other	5/109 (5%)
Physician‐diagnosed atopic dermatitis	19/132 (14%)
Self‐reported allergic rhinitis	36/131 (27%)
Physician‐diagnosed asthma	18/129 (14%)
Active smoking	24/127 (19%)
Respiratory symptoms at the operation dayc	24/126 (19%)
Last day of respiratory symptoms, days agod	20 (6, 31)
Respiratory symptoms within 2 week	50/126 (40%)
Respiratory symptoms within 4 weeks	69/126 (55%)

Values are shown as medians (interquartile range) or n (%).

^aRange 2, 65 years.

^bChronic white patches in tonsils (n = 2), recurrent fever (n = 1), throat abscess (n = 1), teeth braces (n = 1), and food remnants in tonsils (n = 1).

^cSeven subjects had cough, 4 had rhinitis, 3 had temperature >38°C, and ≤1 had other symptoms. Forty subjects had sore throat, but it was excluded from the count due to operation indication.

^dIf >30 days, 31 days was used in the calculation. Sore throat was excluded from the calculation.