Drainage after thyroidectomy: a randomized clinical trial

A randomized clinical trial of surgical drainage in thyroid surgery was performed on 97 patients. Morbidity was not significantly different between both groups. The length of hospital stay was shorter in the undrained group. However, this RCT is not an indication of the value of drainage after thyroid surgery because the series is too small. Using a meta-analysis of the RCTs reported it is possible to show that to drain is not useful.