New Treatment for Tonsils

B O S T O N, July 18 -- A new federally approved method for reducing tonsil size by zapping them with radio waves may make traditional surgery, overnight hospital stays and bowls of ice cream a thing of the past.

The Food and Drug Administration in May approved the technique, dubbed somnoplasty, but some doctors remain skeptical that the technology is better than traditional methods of removing tonsils that have repeated infections.

Somnoplasty has been performed on more than 20,000 patients with oversized soft palates or nasal tissue who suffer from heavy snoring, chronic nasal obstruction or sleep apnea, according to the manufacturer, Somnus Medical Technologies of Sunnyvale, Calif. The new approval extends the use to patients with enlarged tonsils.

A Quick Recovery

Somnoplasty advocates say patients recover rapidly after the procedure.

“One of my patients was eating a sandwich two hours after the procedure and went back to work the next morning,” says Dr. Lionel Nelson, an associate clinical professor in the surgery department at Stanford University in Palo Alto. Nelson’s industry-funded study reporting on the new technique was published in the June issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology.

Nelson says somnoplasty can be performed in under five minutes while the patient is wide awake in a doctor’s office. Using a needle probe, doctors shoot the area with radiofrequency waves, which act like a microwave oven, heating and vibrating the overgrown tissues and causing the cells to dissolve and the tissue to eventually shrink over a period of time.

Traditional Tonsillectomies

Doctors traditionally perform tonsillectomies surgically or with a laser. But the method involves general anesthesia, a painful, weeklong recovery, and carries a remote chance of bleeding and dehydration, Nelson says.

Tonsillectomies are usually recommended for children or adults who have either repeated infections of the tonsils, characterized by sore throats and painful swallowing, or have enlarged tonsils that constrict airways and cause snoring or noisy breathing.