Comparison of early postoperative complications after total and subtotal thyroidectomy in multinodulary goitre

In our study, the findings of 419 patients operated due to multinodulary goitre between January 2005 - December 2009 in Dicle University Medical School General Surgery Clinic were retrospectively evaluated. Patients' demographic characteristics, operative indications, preoperative antithyroid drug usage, the operation type, early morbidity and length of hospital stay were evaluated.According to the operation type, patients were divided into two groups as total thyroidectomy and bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy. Patients who underwent unilateral lobectomy because of a solitary adenoma or a toxic adenoma were excluded from the study as well as the ones who underwent thyroidectomy because of thyroid cancer and completion thyroidectomy for malignancy or recurrent goiter.The mean age of patients was 41.72 (± 12.55). 329 patients (78.5%) were women and 90 (21.5%) were men. 301 patients (%71.9) were operated for multinodulary goitre and 118 patients (%28.1) for toxic multinodulary goitre. 263 patients (%62.8) underwent total thyroidectomy and 156 (%37.2) patients underwent subtotal thyroidectomy.6 (2.3%) of total thyroidectomy patients and 3 (1.9%) of subtotal thyroidectomy patients had recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. Subtotal thyroidectomy group revealed no permenant damage whereas in total thyroidectomy group 1 (%0.4) patient did. Hypocalcemia was observed in 40 patients (%15.2) in the total thyroidectomy group and in 27 (%17.3) patients in the subtotal thyroidectomy group. 1 (%0.4) patient in total thyroidectomy group suffered from permenant hypocalcemia whereas it wasn?t observed in subtotal thyroidectomy group. Haematoma occured in 3 (%1.9) patients treated with subtotal thyroidectomy and in 3 (%1.1) treated with total thyroidectomy, wound infection occured in 1 (%0.6) patient subjected to subtotal thyroidectomy and 3 (%1.1) patients treated with total thyroidectomy.In our study, no significant difference between total and subtotal thyroidectomy was found in terms post operative complications. In conclusion, our study supports total thyroidectomy for multinoduler goitre involving both lobes as a safe technique with low complication rate.Key words: multinodulary goitre, thyroidectomy, complications.