gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Even if the thyroid gland is located in the neck it is not in general a clinical objective for the otorhinolaryngologist in Germany. Due to historic reasons general surgeons usually perform operations on the thyroid. At our department meanwhile this kind of treatment is an established procedure. We prospectively analyzed our thyroid cases in order to present our results.

Material and methods: The prospective study at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Bad Hersfeld started in the year of 2014. So far 231 patients were enrolled with an average age of 53.5 years (16–89). The sex ratio showed a significant preponderance of the female patients with 167 and 64 males. In 155 cases we didn’t insert a Redon-drainage. The mean operation time was 129 minutes. The preoperative mean concentration of calcium was 2.44 mg/ml with a postoperative decrease to 2.21 mg/ml. In cases of malignancies revealed in histology a second procedure with complete thyroidectomy and neck dissection took place immediately afterwards.

Conclusions: Many symptoms of disorders of the thyroid gland are getting manifest in a genuine region of our specialty. Therefore we cannot detect any convincing reason why head and neck surgeons should not perform thyroidectomies. Skills like the specific clinical examination, the preoperative diagnostic work flow including sonography, the precise surgical management of soft tissue and neural structures and the postoperative care are typical features of our discipline. However, besides the surgeon’s expertise a close collaboration with the colleagues of nuclear medicine and the general practitioner respectively the endocrinologist is mandatory in order to achieve a high quality of treatment.