Evaluation of early thyroidectomy complications

Aim: Our aim in this study is to reveal the relationships between patient findings, surgical methods and early thyroidectomy complications. Material and Methods: The files and operative notes of 308 patients who underwent thyroidectomy within 10 years were reviewed retrospectively. Gender, age, preoperative diagnosis, primary or reoperated cases, the type of thyroidectomy [ bilateral subtotal (BST), bilateral total (BTT), unilateral subtotal (UST) and unilateral total (UTT)] and early postoperative complications (hypocalcemia, bleeding, nervus laryngeus recurrens (NLR) injury, infection and seroma) were recorded. The peculiarity of this study is that NLR neuromonitoring was not used in thyroidectomy operations. Results: Of the 308 patients who underwent thyroidectomy, 287 were females and 21 were males. Two hundred eighty three cases of multinodular goiter, 18 cases of nodular goiter and 7 thyroid cancers were operated; 180 BTT, 100 BST, 17 UTT + UST, 7 UST and 4 UTT were applied. Complications were seen in a total of 20 (6.49%) patients who underwent 19 BTT and 1 BST. The only complication in BST was bleeding. There were 10 (3.24%) hypocalcemia, 4 (1.29%) bleeding, 2 (0.649%) NLR injury, 2 (0.649%) infections and 2 (0.649%) seromas. In terms of the frequency of early thyroidectomy complications, hypocalcemia was the first (P=0.0047). In addition, the rates of hypocalcemia and NLR injury were higher in reoperated patients than in primary patients (P<0.05). Discussion: The most common complication was hypocalcemia. NLR injury and hypocalcemia rates were higher in reoperated cases who underwent BTT.