1. Acute Tonsillopharyngitis
Dr Rajesh
16/04/08

2. Definitions tonsillitis: inflammation of pharyngeal tonsils
tonsillopharyngitis: inflammation extending from tonsils to the adenoids and lingual tonsils
recurrent tonsillitis: 7 episodes in 1 year, 5 infections in 2 consecutive years, or 3 infections each year for 3 years consecutively chronic tonsillitis: chronic sore throat, halitosis, tonsillitis, and persistent tender cervical nodes for greater than 4 weeks
quinsy: Greek term used for inflammation of throat and tonsils, historically used for peritonsillar abscess

3. Epidemiology most cases occur in school-age children
uncommon in the first 2 years of life
5-7 URIs per child per year
GAS is found in 35% of children with pharyngitis
45,000 cases of PTA per year or 30 cases per 100,000 people per year

4. Causes of Tonsillopharyngitis
  •  Beta hemolytic streptococcal infection — 22 percent
  •  Mycoplasma pneumoniae — 9.4 percent
  •  Chlamydia species strain TWAR — 8.4 percent
•  Viruses — 25.5 percent
Huovinen, et al 1995

6. CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS
The "classic" presentation of GAS tonsillopharyngitis is a sore throat associated with fever, tonsillopharyngeal erythema and exudate, swollen and tender anterior cervical adenopathy, and an elevated white blood cell (WBC) count without rhinorrhea or cough.
However, even when this constellation of clinical symptoms is present, the likelihood of GAS infection does not exceed 60 to 70 percent in children, and 20 to 30 percent in adults.
Tonsillopharyngitis due to GAS cannot be clinically diagnosed with accuracy in most patients [5,6,7,8,9,10].

7. Is it truly Group A beta hemolytic Streptoccal tonsillopharyngitis?
From many studies, it would appear that the presence or absence of a GAS pharyngitis cannot be accurately diagnosed with clinical examination alone in most patients.
It is somewhat easier to identify a subset of children (approximately 20 percent of cases) and adults (approximately 67 percent of cases) who are unlikely to have GAS.
These patients have sore throats with accompanying rhinorrhea, cough, and hoarseness. Fever is often absent. They have mild tonsillopharyngeal erythema without exudate, and slight or no cervical lymphadenitis.
It has been suggested that the throat culture is not reproducible in some cases, perhaps explaining the occurrence of both false positive and negative results. However, discordance is actually quite uncommon, occurring in only 1 to 10 percent of cases. As an example, in a study in which three simultaneous throat cultures were obtained in consecutive patients between the ages of 2 and 20 years, concordance of positive or negative culture on all three swabs was seen in 102 of 103 (99 percent) patients [15]. False positive throat cultures usually are due to the misclassification as GAS of other beta-hemolytic organisms including streptococci (groups B, C, F, or G) or Staphylococcus aureus. The overall incidence of false positive cultures is less than 5 percent but can exceed 50 percent during an epidemic of group C streptococcal infection in a college setting. The bacitracin disk sensitivity test is used to make a presumptive identification of GAS: 95 to 100 percent of GAS have a zone of inhibition around the disk (0.04 units of bacitracin), while 83 to 97 percent of non-GAS do not exhibit inhibition [16]. As long as there are sufficient numbers of GAS in the area of the disk, the test can be interpreted on a primary blood agar plate. Between 3.6 and 17 percent of children with a sore throat develop an antibody rise to GAS antigens despite negative throat cultures [17,18]; there are no corresponding data in adults but the rate is likely to be much lower. Explanations for false negative throat cultures include:   •  Poor culture technique   •  Occult antibiotic therapy   •  Faulty bacteriology practices
These patients most likely have a sore throat as part of a viral upper respiratory infection and do not require a diagnostic test or treatment.

8. Why antibiotics Treatment of GABHS pharyngitis is important
To prevent complications of infection,
particularly rheumatic fever
suppurative complications
To speed recovery
To prevent spread of the infection

9. Treatment approach based on clinical findings (Komarof, et al)
  •  Empirically treat patients with the constellation of a tonsillar exudate, tender cervical adenopathy, and a temperature >37.8º C.
 •  Obtain throat cultures in patients with only one or two of the above findings and treat based upon those results.
 •  Do not obtain cultures or treat patients with none of the above findings.

10. The nonsuppurative complications of GAS tonsillopharyngitis
Acute rheumatic fever
Scarlet fever
Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome
Acute glomerulonephritis
PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Group A Streptococci)

11. Suppurative complications
Tonsillopharyngeal cellulitis or abscess
Otitis media
Sinusitis
Necrotizing fasciitis

16. Peritonsillar abscess

17. Mononucleosis epstein-barr virus (EBV
indolent onset, gray tonsillar exudate, tender cervical, axillary and/or inguinal lymphadenopathy, low grade fever, weight loss, myalgias, fatigue, hepatosplenomegaly atypical lymphocytes in peripheral smear
positive monospot or heterophil Ab test
rash with penicillin
illness lasts more than 7-10 days

18. Intraoral Ultrasound highly accurate ultrasound
can exclude peritonsillar cellulitis, abscess and retropharyngeal abscess
determination of abscess volume, location and relationship to carotid artery

19. CT neck with contrast indications: spread to deep neck structures
inferior pole abscess
high risk for drainage procedures (coagulopathy)
to guide drainage of PTA after unsuccessful surgical attempt
patient unable to open mouth due to trismus

20. complicated PTA with rupture into carotid space

21. Airway Obstruction nasal airway humidified oxygen corticosteroids
monitored observation
intubation
cricothyroidotomy
tracheostomy

22. Recommendations on the Management of Acute and Chronic Tonsillitis
Adequate supportive care
Use of analgesics, oral anesthetics, and antiseptics
Antibiotics

23. Antibiotics
Penicillins
Cephalosporins
Macrolides

25. Bacteriological cure

28. in the AHA guidelines, prevention of
rheumatic fever as a poststreptococcal complication depends on eradication of GABHS bacteria from the pharynx
prevention of rheumatic fever and other nonsuppurative complications of GABHS pharyngitis still occurs when antibacterial therapy is postponed by as many as 9 days after the onset of pharyngitis symptoms

29. Factors influencing antibiotic choice
ability to eradicate GABHS bacteria from the pharynx
Ability to resolve signs and symptoms of the infection (bacteriologic and clinical efficacy)
adherence (frequency of daily administration, duration of therapy, and palatability),
Antibacterial spectrum (narrow versus broad activity),
potential treatment-related side effects
cost.

30. Cephalosporins

32. Changing pattern of penicillin sensitivity

35. Clinical cure

39. Short course therapy of AT
Cephalopsorin
Azithromycin

41. Clinical pediatrics

42. Penicillin Resistance: Mechanism
It is important to note that no strains of GABHS resistant to penicillin or cephalosporin have ever been reported.
Copathogenicity is the most likely explanation for the increasing rate of penicillin treatment failures
GABHS susceptible to penicillin are protected by other in vivo, colocalized bacteria that lack the same susceptibility due to beta-lactamase production
beta-lactamase producing organisms is more likely to inactivate penicillin

43. Recurrence risk
Symptomatic bacteriologic recurrence within 30 days of initial diagnosis occurred in
37% of patients treated with penicillin V,
25% of patients treated with amoxicillin,
18% of patients treated with cephalexin or cefadroxil,
7% of patients treated with amoxicillin-clavulanate or a second-generation or third-generation cephalosporin

44. Children Less Than Three-Years-Old With Pharyngitis Are Group A Streptococci Really That Uncommon Clinical pediatrice , 1986
During a 15-month period, 148 infants and children less than 3-years-old who presented with
signs and/or symptoms of pharyngitis were monitored in a private pediatric practice. Clinical
signs included fever (95 or 64%), tonsillar exudate (16 or 11%), and cervical adenopathy (5 or 3%).
Beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) from group A were isolated from throat swabs in 37 (25%)
instances. These isolations were more common among children months old than among
children less than 2 years old (35% vs. 19%, p < 0.05), and were significantly more likely when
overnight anaerobic culture techniques were used rather than conventional aerobic methods (23 %
vs. 11%, p < 0.01).

45. Recurrent tonsillitis
Recurrent tonsillitis is diagnosed when an individual has 7 episodes in 1 year, 5 infections in 2 consecutive years, or 3 infections each year for 3 years consecutively.

46. Microbiology of recurrent tonsillitis
A polymicrobial flora consisting of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria is observed in core tonsillar cultures from cases of recurrent pharyngitis.
Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Haemophilus influenzae are the most common bacteria isolated in recurrent tonsillitis.
Bacteroides fragilis is the most common anaerobic bacterium isolated in recurrent tonsillitis.
A polymicrobial bacterial population is observed in most cases of chronic tonsillitis, with alpha- and beta-hemolytic streptococcal species, S aureus, H influenzae, and Bacteroides species identified.
One study, based on bacteriology of the tonsillar surface and core in 30 children undergoing tonsillectomy, suggests that antibiotics prescribed 6 months before surgery do not alter the tonsillar bacteriology at the time of tonsillectomy.7
A relationship between tonsillar size and chronic bacterial tonsillitis is believed to exist. This relationship is based on both the aerobic bacterial load and the absolute number of B and T lymphocytes.
H influenzae is the bacterium most often isolated in hypertrophic tonsils and adenoids.
With regard to penicillin resistance or beta-lactamase production, the microbiology of tonsils removed from patients with recurrent GABHS pharyngitis is not significantly different from the microbiology of tonsils removed from patients with tonsillar hypertrophy.

47. Treatment for recurent / chronic tonsillitis
Clindamycin: mg/kg PO divided tid for 10 d not to exceed 300 mg/dose + Rifampin: 10 mg/kg/dose bid for 4 days
Amoxy-clav for 4-6 weeks

48. Prophylaxis (5 strep infections in 6 months)
Penicillin V Potassium (Kaypen)40 mg/kg/day PO bid, max 3 gm/day

49. Tonsillectomy: Absolute Indications
Tonsillar hypertrophy causing obstruction to respiration or deglutition
Obstructive sleep apnea

50. Relative Indications Chronic tonsillitis
Tonsillitis resulting in febrile convulsions
Peritonsillar abscess
Diphteria carrier
Suspected tonsillar malignancy
Hypertrophy causing malocclusion
Failure to thrive
Systemic disease secondary to Beta hemolytic streptococcal infection
Chronic halitosis