[Juvenile tonsillectomy and leukemia].

Among 305 children with leukemia, between one and fourteen years old, authors found 8 and in a comparative group ("individual matched pairs") 40 children with removed tonsils. The difference (2.62% tonsillectomized children in the leukemia-group, 13.11% in the comparative group) is highly significant. The frequency of tonsillectomy in childhood in Germany corresponds to the percentage of 13.11%. It has to be discussed, if there exists a causality between the state of the tonsils and the frequency of leukemia in childhood. The authors suggest further investigations of this highly interesting subject.