Tonsillectomy Doesn’t Lead To Illness, But Tonsillitis Just Might

A large UK Biobank study found people with prior tonsil problems had higher rates of later inflammatory conditions.

The study did not find evidence that tonsillectomy itself causes chronic illness.

Instead, the risk appears more closely tied to the underlying tonsillitis or enlarged tonsils that led to surgery.

This helps separate correlation from causation in common childhood tonsil surgery discussions.