Question

1. If your tonsils are removed, how does your body develop an immune response against antigens in the throat?

2. The radical mastectomy is an operation in which a cancerous breast, surrounding tissues, and the underlying muscles of the anterior thoracic wall, plus the axillary lymph nodes, are removed. After such an operation, the arm usually swells, or becomes edematous, and is very uncomfortable -- sometimes for months. Why?

Answer 1

Tonsillectomy:

It has no counter-productive effect on the immune system. It actually improves the immune response unblocking the suppression to which it was it not seem to lead to any significant long-term impairment of salivary defense capacity.

Some studies demonstrated that removal of tonsils decreased the levels of serum IgA, especially in children, several months or years after operation, but do not cause significant immune deficiency and increase incidence of immunomodulated diseases, such as infections of the upper respiratory tract.

2.

Swelling is normal after surgery. As the body begins healing itself, thousands of cells are sent to the affected body part

But when the lymph nodes are damaged, lymphatic fluid collects in the surrounding tissues and makes them swell.

Lymphedema may develop immediately after surgery or radiation therapy. Or, it may occur months or even years after cancer treatment has ended. Most often, lymphedema affects the arms and legs.

If lymphedema develops in people who’ve been treated for breast cancer, it usually occurs in the arm and hand, but sometimes it affects the breast, underarm, chest, trunk, and/or back.As part of their surgery, many people with breast cancer have at least two or three lymph nodes removed from under the arm (sentinel lymph node biopsy), and sometimes many more nodes (axillary lymph node dissection). If the cancer has spread, it has most likely moved into the underarm lymph nodes first because they drain lymph from the breast