Introduction
Chronic tonsillitis, a commonly-seen disease in clinic, is the chronic inflammation of the palatal tonsil. It may occur in all people and is commonly-seen in children, less commonly-seen in young people and least commonly-seen in old people, without marked difference in sexes. Due to repeated onset of acute tonsillitis, body resistance against diseases will decline, or because of obstructed drainage of
crypts, bacteria and viruses will reproduce inside crypts, developing into chronic inflammation. This is the way most chronic tonsillitis occurs. Besides, Secondary chronic tonsillitis may also occur after the patient suffers from infectious diseases like scarlet fever, diphtheria, influenza and measles. Recently, the immunological study believes that when antigenic bacteria accumulating inside tonsillar crypts have contacted the tonsillar tissue for a long time, this will result in the formation of the autotogous antigen,giving rise to complex allergic reactions. Therefore, autoallergy is the important cause of chronic tonsillitis. The main pathological changes of the disease lie in crypts, and include injury of the cryptal mucosa, epithelial pachynsis or ulceration and formation of caseous substance with the mixture of epithelial cells, exudate, white blood cells and
bacteria discharging from crypts. The scar may form after the ulcer heals.