Scientific PapersMorbidity of thyroid surgery
Section snippets
Material and methods
From March 1989 to May 1993, 1,163 consecutive patients underwent 1,192 thyroidectomies (Table I). There were 1,021 women and 142 men with a mean age of 46.9 years (range 14.5 to 88.1). Patients with associated hyperparathyroidism were excluded from the study. All patients had their history taken and physical examination, routine chemistry determinations, thyroid function tests, and chest radiographs. The preoperative work-up consisted of thyroid ultrasound, scan, fine needle aspiration (FNA)
Results
There was one death (0.08%). Wound morbidity included 12 superficial and 7 deep hematomas (1.59%), 3 chyle leaks (0.25%), and 6 abscesses (0.5%). Ten hemorrhages (3 superficial and 7 deep) were reexplored a median of 240 minutes (range 15 minutes to 15 days) after surgery (median time was 30 hours and 60 minutes for superficial and deep hematomas, respectively) with no further complications. Nine patients with small superficial hemorrhage showing no progression recovered without reoperation. No
Comments
Our data, in accordance with those of Shaha and Jaffe,6 are not in support of increased morbidity rates in thyroid surgery performed by surgeons with low patient volume provided that surgeons with high volume are supervising. In our series, surgical volume had no bearing on hematoma, abscess, temporary and permanent RLN palsy, and temporary and permanent hypoparathyroidism rates. Postoperative hematoma accounted for 0.08% mortality rate in our series with a 1.5% hematoma rate, which is similar
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