[Role of the microbial flora of the palatine tonsils in the pathogenesis of chronic tonsillitis].

Species composition and the potency of a microbial focus of the microorganisms on the surface and in the lacunae of the palatine tonsils were studied in 51 patients suffering from chronic tonsillitis and in 52 healthy indivisuals. The species composition of the microorganisms was identical in the groups under study. However, its quantitative indices displayed significant differences. The potency of the microbial focus of the beta-hemolytic streptococci in the tonsillar lacunae of healthy individuals averaged 0.010 +/- 0.02 million, in patients with simple chronic tonsillitis-0.16 +/- 0.05, and in toxicoallergic tonsillitis of the I degree-1.03 +/- 0.8 million microbial cells. The constancy and a marked increase of all the species of microorganisms in the tonsillar lacunae of patients suffering from chronic tonsillitis, and also a marked dependence of this phenomenon on the extent of decompensation of the pathological process led to the conclusion that all of them played a definite role in the pathogenesis of this disease. It is supposed that the pathogenic influence of the mentioned microbes on human organism was realized both on account of summation of the antigenic-allergic and the infectious action, and by its other possible mechanisms.