OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence of Peritonsillar abscess (PTA) in the service of Otolaryngology at the Nossa Senhora de Lourdes Hospital (HNSL). Determine their distribution according to age and sex and compared with data from the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study by reviewing electronic medical records that correspond to CID-10: J36 Of the 167,283 visits made to the service, we had 179 cases of APT in HNSL during the period March 31th of 2004 to March 31th of 2012. Data analysis was according to the Mann-Whitney test with significance level of p <0.05. We reviewed the literature through BIREME, and selected studies that correlate APT and incidence, published in the last 10 years. RESULTS: totaled an incidence of 13/100000 per year. We found a mean and median age of 32.6 and 28 respectively. We found a significantly higher number of cases in women (108) than in males (71) (p = 0.023). 44.13% of patients were hospitalized for an average of 2.11 days. CONCLUSIONs peritonsillar abscesses are more prevalent in adults and young adults. The population is predominantly female (p = 0.0023), but the study Ong20 in Singapore condoned higher prevalence in males. The incidence of 13/100000 per year is smaller than and similar Swedish studies12 there is a study of the United Kingdon19. This study can serve as a basis for future studies on the incidence of peritonsillar abscesses in the region. Given that the issue is rarely addressed in the South American literature, and needs further studies to substantiate the findings.