Why an ear ache after a tonsillectomy?

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - For millions of kids, the answer to repeated ear infections is a tonsillectomy.

You might not expect a child to complain about an ear ache right after that surgery. But  Dr. Joehassin Cordero, an ear nose and throat surgeon, says he hears that a lot.

This is what he tells parents, "If a child has a tonsillectomy, the number one complaint is they have an earache but we didn't do anything to the ears. It's just referred pain from the tonsils to the ear. I still see many patients. They take the child to the ER but I know for a fact they don't have an ear infection. It's the same nerve in the tonsils that sends to the little branches in the middle ear and the external auditory canal. So the child may feel it in the ear as compared mostly to the throat."

This week the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is celebrating a new department.

The Ear, Nose and Throat specialty there has been officially named the Department of Otolaryngology,  a move that elevates the status of the university by ultimately attracting more residents who wish to continue their study in that special field.

Joehassin Cordero, M.D., has been named Chairman of that new department.

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