Short-Term Complications After Total Thyroidectomy in Children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric surgery
• Endocrinology
• Surgical oncology

Background:

• Total thyroidectomy for benign conditions is increasingly performed in pediatric patients.
• Understanding short-term outcomes is crucial for evaluating surgical safety in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate 30-day postoperative outcomes in children undergoing total thyroidectomy.
• To compare short-term outcomes between pediatric patients with benign versus malignant indications for total thyroidectomy.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cohort study utilizing the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-Pediatric) database (2015-2019).
• Fisher's exact test was employed to compare postoperative outcomes between benign and malignant surgical indications.

Main Results:

• The study included 1595 pediatric patients: 1091 (68.4%) with benign and 504 (31.6%) with malignant indications.
• Overall complication rates were low and similar between benign (2.8%) and malignant (4.6%) cohorts.
• Key outcomes such as length of stay, parathyroid auto-transplantation rates, readmissions, and reoperations did not significantly differ between the two groups.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric total thyroidectomy demonstrates low 30-day postoperative complication rates for both benign and malignant indications.
• The findings support total thyroidectomy as a safe surgical option for children with benign thyroid disease.
• Further investigation into the long-term outcomes following pediatric total thyroidectomy is warranted.