Objective: To our knowledge, no studies have examined whether the lymphoid tissue of the tonsils are involved PD, or whether tonsillectomy modifies the risk of PD.

Background:  Recent research suggests that PD may be a prion-like disease. Lymphoid tissues of the tonsils play a central part in transmissible prion diseases, like variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Methods: We used Danish medical registries to construct a cohort of all patients in Denmark with an operation code of tonsillectomy 1980-2010 (n= 195,169) and a matched age and sex general population comparison cohort (n= 975,845). Patients were followed until diagnosis of PD (ascertained by in- and outpatient hospital diagnoses) death, censoring, or end of follow-up Nov 30^th 2013. Using Cox regression, we computed hazard ratios (HRs) for PD and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for age and sex by study design, together with other potential confounders, stratified by follow-up time and sex.

Results: During follow-up, we identified 100 and 568 PD diagnoses amongst the tonsillectomy cohort and the general population comparison cohort, respectively, finding an almost similar risk of PD [adjusted (a) HR = 0.95 (95% CI: 0.76–1.19)]. No substantial difference was observed after more than 20 years of follow up (HR= 0.96 (95% CI:  0.64–1.41). There was no difference stratifying on sex.

Conclusions: Tonsillectomy is not a risk factor for PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/tonsillectomy-and-risk-of-parkinsons-disease-a-danish-nationwide-population-based-cohort-study/