Post-thyroidectomy laryngeal edema: A survey of fifty-four cases

Abstract

1. 1. In a study of four hundred patients undergoing thyroid surgery for benign thyroid disease, laryngeal edema was noted laryngoscopically in fifty-four cases (13.5 per cent). 2. 2. The incidence of edema was higher in younger patients, in patients with toxic goiters, and in those undergoing more radical procedures. 3. 3. Edema developed in the majority of patients on the first and second postoperative day, was mainly supraglottic, and was severe in three cases. Emergency tracheostomy was performed in the three severe cases. 4. 4. Laryngeal edema is mainly the result of major operative trauma to the neck and occasionally of intubation difficulties.