Rationale for near total thyroidectomy in patients with nodular goitre

Abstract

Aims: To find out the results of near-total thyroidectomy in patients with nodular goitre with benign lesions. Material and Methods: A prospective study was carried out on 42 cases with nodular goitre at NKP Salve Institute of Medical Science & Research Centre and Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur from October 2010 to October 2012. Results: In this prospective study of 42 cases with nodular goiter, clinically 29 patients had solitary thyroid nodule and 13 patients had multinodular goiter. Out of these 42 patients 35 (83.33%) were female and 7 (16.67%) were male with ratio of 5:1. The age of the patients ranged from 18 years to 65 years.In this study out of 42 patients, 3 patients had papillary carcinoma on FNAC and were treated by total thyroidectomy. 2 patients had colloid cyst and 7 patient had follicular neoplasm in which hemithyroidectomy was done. 30 patients were treated with near total thyroidectomy. After near total thyroidectomy transient hypoparathyroidism was present in 7(23.33%) patients and transient recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy in 2(6.67%) patients. No patient had permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy or permanent hypoparathyroidism. Conclusion: Near-total thyroidectomy achieves a lower complication rate of hypoparathyroidism and a similar complication rate of recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy when compared with the rates reported in the literature for total thyroidectomy. It is an effective and safe surgical treatment option for various benign thyroid diseases.