Patient Characteristics and Postoperative Mortality in Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy / Reply

Edmonson et al responds to comments on their study on patient characteristics and postoperative mortality in children undergoing tonsillectomy. They state that their study of postoperative mortality associated with pediatric tonsillectomy was based entirely on a longitudinal analysis of inpatient and outpatient discharge data from 5 US states. These data provided no information about some of the factors (surgical technique, type of tonsillectomy, postoperative narcotic use) suggested by Dr Huang and colleagues as having possible relationships with mortality. Their analysis did include a case-by-case evaluation of diagnosis and procedure codes associated with preoperative, surgical, and postoperative encounters in all fatal cases.