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110
Enlarged Tonsils and Adenoids.
(Table IV. (C), Appendix A).
The clinic for the operative treatment of these conditions
continued to be held at the Croydon General Hospital in accommodation
loaned to the Education Committee. The clinic was open
on one or two afternoons each week to meet the numbers of cases
referred for and awaiting treatment according to the pressure of
cases or their urgency for treatment. The actual operations and
administration of anaesthetics are undertaken by eight local medical
practitioners working in pairs and in rota for three-monthly
periods.
307 Cases were treated at The clinic, and, as in previous years,
all those having dental caries were, prior to the operation, treated
by the Dental Officers at the School Dental Clinic. The number of
children treated for dental caries prior to operation at the throat
clinic was 310.
During the year classes were held in which instruction in the
correct methods of breathing was given to children referred from
School Medical inspection as mouth breathers from causes not
remediable at the Throat Clinic, and those who had recently been
treated at the Throat Clinic. These classes were held in a large
room at the Central Polytechnic and conducted by Miss Cooke.
This form of after-care is a most important part of the treatment
of enlarged tonsils and adenoids, not only in teaching the children
again to breathe properly, but in assisting their quick return to
health after the more or less extended periods of general debility
consequent upon obstructive affection of the throat and nose.
Each child after operation is expected to attend the class daily
during a period of four weeks, the exercises lasting for twenty
minutes to half-an-hour. Parents are summoned to attend on the
first and last days of the instructional period when a medical
officer is present for interview. Parents are shown the nature of
the exercises and requested to encourage the children to carry out
the exercises at home. The results have been highly satisfactory,
and parents generally are enthusiastic in their praise of the effects
—both of the operation and the after-treatment—on the well-being
of the children. Ear discharges clear up, deafness diminishes in
degree or entirely disappears, languor, want of appetite and mental
dullness give place to alertness, brightness and a healthy desire for
food.
During the year the class met on 421 occasions, 200 children
were treated following operations for tonsils and adenoids, while
37 mouth breathing children were also treated.