Surgery for thyroid goiter in western India. A prospective analysis of 334 cases

334 consecutive cases of thyroid swellings operated by a single surgical unit over 9 years have been analysed prospectively. There was a female preponderence (4.39:1). The swellings were clinically differentiated into uninodular (39.52%), multinodular (47.31%) and diffuse (13.17%). Hyperthyroidism was manifested in 49 cases (14.67%). Pressure symptoms were present in only 1.5% cases. FNAC detected malignancy in 14 of 162 cases (8.64%). The initial 100 cases were operated upon by standard Lahey's technique and the latter 234 by modified technique described by Bapat et al for benign thyroid disease. Operations performed included nodulectomies (5.39%), hemithyroidectomies (41.92%), partial thyroidectomies (25.75%), subtotal (25.45%) and near total thyroidectomies (1.5%). Post-operative complications were higher in the first group and included unilateral cord palsies-5 (5%). hypocalcemia-4 (4%) hypoparathyroidism-1 (1%) haemorrhage-1 (1%) and mortality-1 (1%) vis a vis cord palsies-2 (0.85%), hypocalcemia-3 (1.28%), hypoparathyroidism-1 (0.43%) and there was no mortality. Histopathology revealed 83 (24.85%) colloid goiters, 193 (57.78%) nodular goiters, 21 (6.29%) follicular adenomas, 7 (2.10%) cases of thyroiditis and 30 (8.98%) malignancies. This study reveals the lower incidence of RLN palsy after modified thyroidectomies, and a low incidence of malignancy.