Complication rates in reoperative thyroid surgery.

Aim: Reoperation in the central compartment for recurrent thyroid cancer presents several challenges to the surgeon while total thyroidectomy, a method which also has a deinite role in the management of malignant and benign thyroid disorders, is known to lead to few complications and rare postoperative mortality. This study aimed to investigate postoperative complication rates related to these two surgical procedures.. Patients and methods: In this study, we investigated the difference of complication rates between total and completion thyroidectomy procedures in 152 patients who had undergone total and 102 who had completion thyroidectomies. The complications investigated consisted of tracheostomy performed due to recurrent laryngeal nevre palsy, temporary hypocalcemia, permanent hypocalcemia, temporary vocal cord dysfunction, permanent, vocal cord dysfunction, and postoperative hematoma. Postoperative deaths were also assessed. Findings: Statistically signiicant differences were found between total and completion thyroidectomy groups, indicating that the completion thyroidectomy group carried a signiicantly higher risk with respect to laryngeal nevre palsy (p<0.0001), temporary hypocalcemia (p<0.0001), permanent vocal cord dysfunction (p<0.0001) and temporary vocal cord dysfunction (p<0.0001). Conclusions: Our study suggests that total thyroidectomy is the treatment of choice for patients with thyroid cancer. Total thyroidectomy can be done with minimal permanent disability in patients with benign and malignant thyroid tumors, in patients who have had previous thyroid operations, and in patients with coexistent hyperparathyroidism. The study also shows the importance of deciding on the appropriate surgical approach in multinodular goitre cases with a postoperative diagnosis of malignancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]