Antibiotics during Tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy?What cultures need to b

[Motherof2]

My 13 yr old son with sudden onset OCD and tics is having his tonsils and adenoids out next week. I need input from other PANDAS parents about what antibiotics the surgeon needs to hang during surgery, and what cultures should we request be done on the tonsils when they are removed? I know this is a one time opportunity and I don't want to screw it up. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated also. We desperately want to help our son! Motherof2

[Mayzoo]

For our daughter, they just cultured the tonsils and saw what grew. They said the adenoids were to small and just get sucked into the tube, so they could not culture those.

 

We did five days of zithromax before and after the surgery. It was not her prophy abx at the time. I have heard other folks say another abx would be better, but kiddo did pretty well on this. I guess every kid is different.

[JuliaFaith]

At my insistence, son's dr. asked for a deep nasal culture to test for - MARCoNS, coagulase negative staph, mold growth. This is not a pleasant culture to do while they are awake. We did find some things and treated for them, so glad that this was done during surgery.

 

Surgeon said that tonsils would be checked for infections etc. but all they did was look at them, so not sure how you can be pro-active in making sure the culturing gets done for this. :-/ We only used homeopathic meds before and after surgery, maybe because my son had never tested positive for strep, plus abx never really did much for him. If you want those, just PM me, they are available at organic groceries stores.

 

Best wishes on the surgery!

[Mayzoo]

Our surgeon felt there was no need to cultures kids tonsils. I made it very clear that need or not, I wanted it done. Then I made sure I told EVERYONE at the surgery center we went to that the tonsils were to be cultured and I reminded the doc when he came in right before surgery. He had them cultured. Maybe he would have cultured them anyway had I not been so insistent, but if he did not, then the opportunity would have never come again so I had no problem being insistent.

[JPdad]

Our doc never did a culture. We did 10 days of Augmentin before and after and IV antibiotics during the surgery. So far so good for us. DS has been symptom free for 3 months following the T&A and we have him on daily proph. augmentin now. This is the longest he has been symptom free since his initial episode about 16 months ago.

[Motherof2]

Thanks everyone. Does anybody remember what IV antibiotics the ENT hung during the surgery? I think I read somewhere about clindamycin and rifampin, but I can't remember where I saw it. Motherof2.

[AmySLP]

Thanks everyone. Does anybody remember what IV antibiotics the ENT hung during the surgery? I think I read somewhere about clindamycin and rifampin, but I can't remember where I saw it. Motherof2.

 

We were told clindamycin a nd rifampin prior to and after sx. By dr.T I believe

[Motherof2]

Well, we went back to the surgeon today. He promised to culture the tonsil and adenoid tissue next Thursday, and also said he would do nasal endoscopy and culture any drainage he saw coming from my sons sinuses into the nasal passages. He had never heard of a deep nasal culture, but I guess if he goes back there and looks for anything unusual and cultures it, that would be OK. He has been so accomodating. He had heard of PANDAS during his residency in NY. THank God he came to SC! I also asked him to hang strong antibiotics during the surgery. He plans to hang clindamycin 600 mg, and he told me to give my son augmentin 875 bid for the week before surgery. I hope this sounds like a good plan to everyone. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Motherof2.,

[JuliaFaith]

Just an FYI my dh endoscopy (had them done in the office after surgery) were $600+ per side of the nose. --expensive

 

The 'deep nasal swab' is a large q-tip that is put deep in the sinuses and results put on a slide. --inexpensive