Thyroidectomy in Octogenarians

Mahrous, Ali K; Ellabban, Mohamed A; Brennan, Liam

doi:10.21608/scumj.2014.46468

Thyroidectomy in Octogenarians

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Addenbrookes University Teaching Hospital, Cambridge, UK.

² Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

³ Department of Anaesthesia, Addenbrookes University Teaching Hospital, Cambridge, UK

10.21608/scumj.2014.46468

Abstract

Background: there is a strongly held belief that thyroid surgery on octogenarians is more risky at younger patients. This study aims at investigating whether this assumption is true or not.
Objective: to evaluate the safety of thyroid surgery in the octogenarian population. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively examined our database for those patients who underwent thyroidectomy at the age of 80 years or above between 2004 and 2009. Data were collected regarding patients’ age, gender, presenting symptoms, comorbidities, preoperative investigations including Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC), whether they underwent total, completion or hemithyroidectomy, postoperative complications, the need for postoperative critical care and histology. Results: 23 patients were identified. All patients had preoperative ultrasound scan of the neck and six had a CT scan of the neck and chest to assess for retrosternal extension. No postoperative complications were reported except for one patient with hematoma and another with right vocal cord palsy. Conclusion: Thyroidectomy in octogenarians is a safe procedure. The incidence of complications in our series is not higher than those in younger population.

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