Trends in thyroid surgery in Illinois

Endocrine surgery is an evolving subspecialty in general surgery. To determine whether this subspecialty is having an effect on practice patterns of thyroid surgery, we reviewed all thyroidectomies performed in Illinois over an 11-year period.

The Illinois COMPdata database from the Illinois Hospital Association was used to retrieve all the thyroid operations performed in the state of Illinois from 1999 to 2009. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the effects of surgeon and hospital type on practice patterns of thyroidectomies.

In the early period (1999-2004), 5,824 operations were identified compared with 8,454 in the late period (2005-2009; P < .001). Total thyroidectomy represented 2,679 (46%) of the thyroid operations done in the early period compared with 4,976 (59%) in the late period (P < .001). Sixty-two percent of all the thyroid operations were done at community hospitals in the early period compared with 56% in the late period. Endocrine surgeons (ES) performed the greatest rate of thyroidectomies, 0.7 and 0.6/10(5) population, in both early and late periods, respectively.

In Illinois, the volume of thyroid operations has increased significantly over the past 10 years with a shift toward total thyroidectomy. Although most thyroidectomies are still performed in community hospitals, this percentage has decreased. ES perform a minority of thyroid operations, but they have the greatest volume of thyroidectomies per surgeon. These findings may represent broader trends in thyroid surgery throughout the United States.