TH8.8 Retrospective study on the safety of thyroid surgery with confirmed benign histology in a UK district general hospital

Abstract

Abstract Aim With increasingly aging population, more thyroidectomies are being performed in the elderly. These surgeries may be suspected to be unsafe as majority of the geriatric population suffer from comorbidities. Our local study explored the safety of thyroid surgery with confirmed benign histology in the elderly, with the post-operative complication rates being the primary outcome measures. Methods The study group included patients over 75 years who had thyroid surgeries with confirmed benign histology in a UK district general hospital from January 2010 to January 2022. We then analysed the rates of complications including temporary hypocalcemia, permanent hypocalcemia, vocal cord palsy and haematoma. Results 41 elderly patients underwent thyroid surgery with confirmed benign histology in our facility within the period. 78% of them had thyroid lobectomy and the commonest indication for surgery was benign multinodular goitre. There were no haematomas, no permanent vocal cord palsies and no cases of permanent hypocalcemia. Only 3(7.3%) patients had transient hypocalcemia, and 2(4.9%) had vocal cord palsy which all resolved before 6 months. Conclusions Our study has demonstrated that it is generally safe to perform thyroidectomy in the elderly population with low hypocalcemia and vocal cord palsy rates as compared to the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons’ report of 10.2% and 7.8% for hypocalcemia and early cord palsy rates respectively in all age-groups. Nevertheless, we would advocate appropriate patient selection in terms of ASA classification. For example, 50% of those who had post-operative vocal cord palsy in our study had an ASA of 3.