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Female sex, central lymph node metastasis and dissection are causes of globus symptom after thyroidectomy

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Abstract

Globus symptoms are not uncommon after an uncomplicated thyroidectomy. However, their associated factors and etiology have not been investigated. We investigated the etiology and factors related to globus symptoms after thyroidectomy. The medical records of 289 patients who underwent thyroidectomy and completed a voice analysis, psychiatric screening, and voice-related questionnaires before and 1 month after the surgery were reviewed. Patients were excluded if they had globus symptoms before surgery or scored high on the psychiatric questionnaire. The selected patients were divided into two groups according to development of globus symptoms after surgery. Clinicopathological parameters and results of the voice analysis and voice-related questionnaires were compared between the two groups. A total of 157 patients were enrolled, and more than half (80/155, 51 %) showed development of globus symptoms 1 month after thyroidectomy. Female patients [hazard ratio (HR), 2.605; P = 0.010], patients who had central lymph node metastasis (HR, 3.533; P = 0.001), and patients who underwent central neck dissection (HR, 3.652; P = 0.014) had a higher probability of developing globus symptoms. Patients who developed globus symptoms scored higher on the voice-related questionnaire, and had a greater decrease in speaking fundamental frequency (P < 0.001). Globus symptoms developed after 1 month in more than half of patients who underwent thyroidectomy. Female sex and central lymph node metastasis and dissection increased the possibility of developing the symptoms.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 137-701, Republic of Korea

    Inn-Chul Nam, Young-Jin Cho, Mi-Ran Shim, Yeon-Shin Hwang, Sang-Yeon Kim, Young-Hoon Joo & Dong-Il Sun

  2. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ja-Sung Bae & So-Hee Lee

  3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Haeundae Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, Busan, Republic of Korea

    Jun-Ook Park

Authors
  1. Inn-Chul Nam
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  2. Young-Jin Cho
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  3. Ja-Sung Bae
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  4. So-Hee Lee
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  5. Jun-Ook Park
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  6. Mi-Ran Shim
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  7. Yeon-Shin Hwang
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  9. Young-Hoon Joo
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  10. Dong-Il Sun
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Correspondence to Dong-Il Sun.

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Nam, IC., Cho, YJ., Bae, JS. et al. Female sex, central lymph node metastasis and dissection are causes of globus symptom after thyroidectomy. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 273, 1607–1613 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-015-3676-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-015-3676-8

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