Preoperative and Postoperative Complications in Patients with Disease of the Thyroid

Abstract

A careful study of the preoperative and postoperative complications and results of thyroidectomy is necessary to determine the form of treatment best suited to the various types of diseases of the thyroid. I have reviewed the patients with disease of the thyroid seen at the University of Illinois Research and Educational Hospital for the period 1948 to 1959 with respect to the factors complicating surgery and the results of surgical treatment. During the period 1948 to 1959 (Table 1), 841 patients with disease of the thyroid gland were treated surgically, 782 for benign disease and 59 for malignant disease. An additional 95 patients with toxic goiter, 25.2% of all patients with toxic goiter encountered, are not included in this tabulation; they were treated with I¹³¹ during this period because of various contraindications to surgery. Of these 841 patients, 470 had nontoxic nodular goiter, 200 toxic diffuse goiter, 82 toxic