Total or less than total thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter long term follow-up

Abstract

Objective: Multinodular goiter is a common surgical disease. There is no common consensus regarding the extent of thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter. This study aims to present personal experience on treating patients with multinodular goiter and to compare complication rates and results of total and partial thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter.
 Material and Method: Three hundred fifty patients underwent thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter between May 2003 and October 2010. All patients were diagnosed as multinodular goiter and were referred to surgery by one endocrinologist. All operations were also performed by one surgeon using microsurgical techniques. Partial thyroidectomy (bilateral subtotal or unilateral total thyroidectomy and contralateral subtotal thyroidectomy) was performed in 65 patients (Group-1) and extracapsular total thyroidectomy was performed in 285 patients (Group-2). All patients are being followed followed from the day they were diagnosed until now by the same endocrinologist. Fisher exact test was used for statistical analysis.
 Results: In Group-1, one patient had transient vocal-cord palsy and but none had hypoparathyroidism. On the other hand, in Group-2, two patients had transient vocal-cord palsy, five had hypocalcemia (one was permanent), and one had a hematoma. Mortality and wound infection were absent in both groups. The histopathological studies showed that 40 incidental thyroid carcinomas occurred among Group-2 patients. During long-term follow-up, 13 patients had goiter recurrence (n = 65, 20%) in Group-1, whereas none had goiter recurrence in Group-2.
 Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences in the complication rate between subtotal and total thyroidectomy groups (p>0.05). However, the recurrence rate was higher (statistically significant) after subtotal thyroidectomy than after total thyroidectomy (p<0.05). Total thyroidectomy eliminated future recurrence of the disease and is also curative in incidental thyroid carcinomas. In addition, it can be safely performed using microsurgical techniques.