A review of adult tonsil histopathology and the effect of concomitant Human Immunodeficiency Viruses infection

Abstract

Objective: To review the histopathological diagnoses of palatine tonsil diseases and to compare the incidence of malignancy in HIV infected and HIV uninfected patients. Methods: This study is a retrospective record review over the period 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2015. The patients were recruited from the Otorhinolaryngology departments at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Helen Joseph Hospital. Records were collected from the National Health Care Laboratory database of patients above 18 years of age. Results: The histology results of 319 patients were obtained. Reactive lymphoid hyperplasia was present in the vast majority (77.3%). Fourteen patients had underlying malignancies. There were 86 patients who were HIV infected and 74 were HIV uninfected. The rest of the patients’ HIV status was not known. Eight malignancies (9.3%) were discovered in the HIV infected patients and 6 malignancies (8.1%) were discovered in the HIV uninfected patients. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of malignancies between the HIV infected and uninfected groups. Conclusion: The majority of patients undergoing tonsillectomy had an underlying benign condition. HIV status does not appear to be a risk factor for tonsil malignancies other than Kaposi’s sarcoma.