CHANGES IN TRANSAMINASE BEFORE AND AFTER TONSILLECTOMY

Almost all patients who undergo palatine tonsillectomy for chronic tonsillitis and/or tonsillar hypertrophy manifest postoperative changes in their condition and laboratory data. In some patients, high preoperative transaminase levels decrease postoperatively. I studied 17 patients who had abnormal serum transaminase levels 10 days before tonsillectomy. Before tonsillectomy, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) levels were abnormal in half and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) were abnormal in all. Before operation, laboratory values of serum GPT were higher than those of serum GOT in all 17 patients. After tonsillectomy, the abnormal GOT levels in all patients gradually improved to the normal range before the 11th postoperative day and GPT levels did so before the 25th day. Measurement of intracellular transaminase activity of the palatine tonsil suggested that the migration of intracellular transaminase from tonsillar cells to serum would not elevate the serum transaminase level. Postoperative changes in serum transaminase and serum cholinesterase were different from the recovery process observed in fatty liver. The high transaminase level observed in patients with tonsillectomy is suspected to be due to other organs, rather than continuous inflammation of the palatine tonsil.