CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND SURGICAL TREATMENT OF THYROGLOSSAL DUCT ANOMALIES (TGDAS).

Abstract

Objectives: To study the profdes of patients presenting with Thyroglossal duct anomalies and the outcomeof their surgical treatment.Study Design: Descriptive.Setting and duration of the study: Saidu Teaching Hospital Saidu Sharif Swat, from November 2005 toNovember 2006.Patients and methods: All patients were admitted through Out- patient department. They were analyzed onthe basis of location, age, sex, clinical presentation, operative findings, surgical procedure performed andduration of follow up. All the operations were done by the fellows of Oto-rhino-laryngology.Diagnosis was based on clinical examination in all cases. Ultrasound was carried out in all the patients tolocalize thyroid gland.Thyroid isotope scan and fistulogram are necessary preoperatively to find outfunctioning ectopic thyroid tissues and to see the extant of the tract. These investigations were not carriedout due to poor socioeconomic condition of the patients. Histopathological study was done in all the casesResults: A total of fifteen patients with clinically suspected thyroglossal duct anomalies were admitted fromNovember 2005 to Nov 2006. Out of the fifteen patients, one was female while the 14 cases were male.Age of the patients ranged from 2-16 years. Ten patients were below 8 years of age while 05 patients wereabove 8 years. Majority (53.5%) presented with neck swelling followed by discharging fistula (33.3%). Allpatients presented with midline swelling except one on the left side. Majority of swellings, i.e. 66% werepresent in the infra-hyoid region, while 26% presented at the pre-hyoid area. Per-operative findingsincludes 07 cases with tract up to the hyoid, 3 up to the tongue base, 3 tract attached to the hyoid bone, oneup to thyro-hyoid membrane, while in one case no tract was found.Conclusion; It is concluded from our study that most of the patients were below 8 years of age; malechildren were predominantly affected and majority of them presented with cystic swelling on one side ofneck.In 10 patients, the anomalies were situated in the infrahyoid region.No recurrence occurred viaperforming standard Sistrunck procedure at one year follow up.Key words; Key words: Thryoglossal duct anomalies, Sistrunk operation