Retrospective Evaluation of Completion Thyroidectomy Cases

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the reasons and complications of completion thyroidectomy. Material and Methods: One hundred and ten patients undergone completion thyroidectomy were evaluated according to their age, gender, expenditure, operative technics, recurrence, fine-needle aspiration biopsies cytology, final pathology and complications. Results: Out of 110 patients 97 were female and 13 were male. Fifty six patients were operated on for malign reasons while 54 patients were operated on for benign reasons. 55% of the patients had been sent to our institution from another institution. Multinodular goiter was the most frequent histopathological result followed by papillary thyroid carcinom. Hypocalcemia was detected in 40 patients, seroma in 17 patients, permanent hoarseness resulting from recurrent laryngial nerve injury in 1 patient, esophageal injury in 1 patient, internal jugular vein injury in 1 patient and abscess in 1 patient. Recurrence was detected in the other lobe among from the operated one was in 38% of the patients. Parathyroid tissue was found in the rethyroidectomy piece in 23.6% of the cases. Conclusion: In the second thyroidectomy complications were more severe than the initial thyroidectomy and the rate of incidental parathyroidectomy increases obviously. We believe that the need for completion thyroidectomy and resulting complications can be reduced to a minimum through total thyroidectomy.