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Surgery for recurrent goiter: complication rate and role of the thyroid-stimulating hormone-suppressive therapy after the first operation

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Abstract

Purpose

This report examines outcomes in our series of patients who underwent surgery for recurrent goiter to assess the efficacy of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)-suppressive therapy after the first less than total thyroidectomy. A further outcome was to understand whether redo surgery was burdened with a higher rate of complications.

Methods

We evaluated 214 patients undergoing a completion thyroidectomy for recurrent goiter who had received, as their first surgery, a bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy. After the first operation, 84 patients were given TSH-suppressive therapy with levothyroxine, 32 were treated with antithyroid drugs, and 92 did not receive any suppressive treatment but only a substitutive therapy. The 84 patients who received levothyroxine at a suppressive dosage (group A) were compared with 92 patients who did not receive levothyroxine or received it only at substitutive dosage (group B). We further compared the complication rate of a similar group of 175 patients who had undergone a primary thyroidectomy.

Results

The average age at intervention for relapse in group A patients was significantly lower than that of group B patients: 54.18 vs 60.8 years (p < 0.001). The average interval between the first intervention and the intervention for relapse was significantly shorter in group A than in group B: 24 vs 27 years (p = 0.03). After the operation, temporary hypoparathyroidism occurred in 37.7 % of patients and definitive hypoparathyroidism in 7.2 %.

Conclusions

Our results clearly show that the interval between the two surgical interventions was significantly reduced in patients undergoing TSH-suppressive therapy with levothyroxine. The incidence of hypoparathyroidism dramatically increased.

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Conflicts of interest

None.

Authors’ contributions

The study conception and design were by Miccoli P and Frustaci G, acquisition of data by Fosso A, analysis and interpretation of data by Miccoli M and Frustaci G, drafting of manuscript by Frustaci G and Materazzi G, and critical revision of manuscript by Miccoli P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Medical, Molecular and Critical Area Pathology, University of Pisa, Via Paradisa 2, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    P. Miccoli, G. Frustaci, A. Fosso, M. Miccoli & G. Materazzi

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  1. P. Miccoli
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  2. G. Frustaci
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  3. A. Fosso
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  4. M. Miccoli
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  5. G. Materazzi
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Correspondence to G. Frustaci.

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Miccoli, P., Frustaci, G., Fosso, A. et al. Surgery for recurrent goiter: complication rate and role of the thyroid-stimulating hormone-suppressive therapy after the first operation. Langenbecks Arch Surg 400, 253–258 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-014-1258-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-014-1258-7

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