[Brain damage after tonsillectomy?].

Abstract

We report on a 47-year old male patient who developed persistent postoperational bleeding after tonsillectomy, which made tamponading of the pharynx necessary. Even though the patient left the hospital after one week with a haemoglobin value of 10.6 g% and without any complaints, he developed personality changes and later severe neurological symptoms which led to the diagnosis of hypoxic brain damage as suggested by a variety of neurologists and psychiatrists. The diagnosis was finally disproved by a brain biopsy revealing the existence of Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease, a degenerative inflammatory disease due to a slow virus infection. By this final diagnosis the reproach of a maltreatment could be ruled out. The accidental coincidence of the tonsillectomy and the beginning of the Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease had led to the incorrect diagnosis of an operation-caused brain damage. A relation to the tonsillectomy could be ruled out by an extensive neurological examination using every possible diagnostic aid including brain biopsy.