[Modern thyroid surgery - the surgeon's endocrine-surgical understanding and his responsibility for the extent of...

High quality thyroid surgery implies a surgeon with an endocrine-surgical understanding aiming at best possible outcome. This includes an appropriate extent of the resection and a low rate of complications. It is important that the surgeon is involved at an early stage being part of the decision process for or against partial or total thyroidectomy. Furthermore, the surgeon should not only be able to perform thyroid and cervical lymph node sonography, but also to be capable to interpret cross-sectional imaging modalities and nuclear medicine imaging procedures. A thorough knowledge of modern principles of radicality is essential.Benign goiters require individualized surgical strategy: solitary nodules can be treated with a tissue-preserving selective nodular resection. However, a multinodular goiter does not necessarily require total thyroidectomy-prevention of a permanent hypoparathyroidism is of paramount importance. For recurrent goiters, removal of the dominant side and therefore, unilateral procedure is favored. Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency to set the indication for thyroid surgery separately for each lobe. Graves' disease requires thyroidectomy, and occasionally, hypertrophic Hashimoto's thyroiditis may also result in surgery.The principles of radical surgical treatment of malignant goiters have changed significantly over the past few years and, so far, strict indication for postoperative radioiodine treatment is being reconsidered. This is especially relevant for papillary thyroid microcarcinomas and minimally invasive follicular tumors. Even the radical surgical treatment of medullary thyroid carcinoma, especially considering synchronous or metachronous lateral neck dissection, is currently under review.Hypoparathyroidism is the most relevant complication in radical thyroid surgery and has devastating influence on the patients' life quality. Nowadays, permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and postoperative hemorrhage rarely occur due to subtle surgical techniques. Extracervical surgical access to the thyroid is still a matter of clinical trials and should be restricted to centers. Radiofrequency ablation is an alternative method for benign lesions or hyperfunctioning nodules in patients with high surgical risk.