What are the dangers of a sore throat?

Angina is a polymicrobial inflammatory ENT disease in which the palatine tonsils, a paired lymphoid organ of the immune system, are affected by various bacteria, most often beta-hemolytic streptococcus or staphylococcus. Acute tonsillitis can also be caused by viruses (adenovirus, coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus).

What is dangerous about tonsillitis? Because microbes and viruses, as well as the toxins they produce, enter the bloodstream and lymphatic system, causing infectious pathologies of other organs.

Dangerous consequences of angina for children and adults

If you ask an otolaryngologist what kind of sore throat is dangerous, you will get a professional answer: the most dangerous sore throat is purulent: follicular, lacunar, fibrinous and phlegmonous. All of them cause complications of both local and general nature. And children may have complications with the catarrhal form of sore throat.

What is the danger of tonsillitis in children? The main complication of catarrhal tonsillitis in preschool children is unilateral or bilateral otitis, which occurs due to infection from the nasopharynx entering the middle ear cavity (through the Eustachian tube). If a child has chronic catarrhal tonsillitis, the tissues of the peripharyngeal ring constantly swell, and this can lead to difficulty breathing during sleep, known as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. If there is airway obstruction, emergency intubation or tracheotomy may be required.

What is the danger of purulent tonsillitis? With purulent tonsillitis - regardless of the patient's age - the inflammation focus can expand from the tonsils affected by the infection to the surrounding tissues. Thus, with follicular tonsillitis, the inflammatory process first affects the follicles of the palatine tonsils, but often spreads to the lacunae, and then the ENT doctor diagnoses lacunar tonsillitis (or acute lacunar tonsillitis). In both cases, purulent exudate is formed, which contains many types of rapidly multiplying pathogenic microorganisms, in particular, Bacteroides spp., Peptostreptococcus spp., Fusobacterium spp., etc., which cause suppuration.

What is dangerous about follicular tonsillitis? Because the inflammatory-purulent process initiated by bacteria affects not only the tonsil follicles, but goes further and progresses. This leads to the formation of peritonsillar, retropharyngeal or parapharyngeal abscesses and even phlegmon (diffuse purulent inflammation) of the peripharyngeal tissues.

As otolaryngologists note, retropharyngeal and peritonsillar abscesses occur mainly in children, often spread to the submandibular and cervical lymph nodes and cause acute regional lymphadenitis. And with the lymph flow, the infection (and microbial toxins) gets to other lymph nodes.

Toxins and enzymes of aggression and defense of microbes enter the blood, and this can lead to the development of rheumatism and infectious polyarthritis; rheumatic carditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and mediastinitis (inflammation of the mediastinum); hemorrhagic vasculitis (damage to the vascular walls); pyelonephritis or glomerulonephritis (with subsequent chronic renal failure); meningitis (inflammation of the meninges), encephalitis (inflammation of brain tissue), brain abscess.

Moreover, abscesses in purulent tonsillitis are potentially life-threatening, as they contribute to the development of postanginal necrobacteriosis (Lemierre's syndrome), which is a consequence of infection entering the internal jugular vein and leads to its rapid spread through large blood vessels. The result is general sepsis and septic (infectious-toxic) shock.

What is dangerous about fungal tonsillitis caused by the Candida fungus? This pathology can cause all the complications listed above, as well as pericarditis, granulomatous vasculitis, diffuse encephalitis with microabscesses, fungal aneurysms, and candidal septic arthritis.

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Why is tonsillitis dangerous during pregnancy?

First of all, fetal hypoxia. This disease occurs with an increase in body temperature, and this has negative consequences for the fetus due to insufficient oxygen supply through the placenta.

Almost all complications of acute purulent inflammation of the tonsils have been discussed above. And all of them - depending on the severity of the disease - can also occur during pregnancy.

It is known that in addition to streptococcal and staphylococcal tonsillitis, this disease can be caused by the herpes simplex virus, Epstein-Barr virus (herpesvirus type IV) and cytomegalovirus. If a pregnant woman develops herpetic (herpetic) tonsillitis, then among the possible complications, doctors name purulent inflammation of the larynx tissue (retropharyngeal abscess), inflammation of the membranes of the brain or heart muscle, as well as hemolytic or aplastic anemia, as a result of which the level of red blood cells in the blood decreases sharply. In this case, hypoxia of a pregnant woman leads to inevitable oxygen starvation of the fetus and very often to its death.

In addition, the herpes virus and cytomegalovirus overcome the placental barrier and infect the fetus, resulting in various intrauterine developmental defects or placental abruption. In the early stages - as a result of spontaneous termination of pregnancy - the fetus dies.

Knowing the dangers of angina, you will not risk your health - yours and your children's. And you will be treated correctly, following all the doctor's instructions.