Sore throat - a review of presentation and etiology.

A commonly encountered complaint in clinical practice is that of a sore throat. However, confusion prevails in the minds of the treating specialists as to what treatment protocol should be followed and how to differentiate it from tonsilliti. It was with a view to clarifying this issue that a prospective study was undertaken on 50 patients with the presenting complaint of a sore throat, of which 20 received medical treatment and 30 underwent a tonsillectomy. The preoperative throat swabs versus fine needle aspiration cultures and core cultures were also analyzed us were some predisposing factors. Available literature was reviewed and compared with findings of the current study. On the bash of this, a protocol for treatment was developed including antibiotic preference and best method of microbiological isolation of offending organisms.