Thyroid Surgery

Thyroid Surgery Center

Your surgeon may recommend that you consider thyroid surgery for 4 main purposes:

  1. You have a bulge that might be thyroid cancer.
  2. You have a diagnosis of thyroid cancer.
  3. You have a nodule or goiter that is causing local signs – compression of the trachea, problem swallowing or a visible or unsightly mass.
  4. You have a bulge or goiter that is causing signs due to the creation and release of excess thyroid hormone – either a toxic nodule, a toxic multinodular goiter or Graves’ disease.

The extent of your thyroid surgery should be discussed by you and your thyroid doctor and can usually be listed as a partial thyroidectomy or a total thyroidectomy. Extraction of part of the thyroid can be categorized as:

  1. An open thyroid biopsy – a rarely used process where a nodule is extracted straight;
  2. A hemithyroidectomy or thyroid lobectomy – where one lobe (1/2) of the thyroid is withdrawn;
  3. An isthmusectomy – removal of just the whist of thyroid mass between the 2 lobes; used especially for little tumors that are found in the isthmus.
  4. Finally, a total or near-total thyroidectomy is the removal of all or most of the thyroid tissue.

The advice as to the extent of thyroid surgery will be determined by the reason for the operation. For situation, a nodule restricted to one side of the thyroid may be managed with a hemithyroidectomy. If you are being assessed for a large bilateral goiter or large thyroid cancer, then you will probably have a suggestion for a total thyroidectomy. However, the extent of the operation is both a difficult medical choice as well as a difficult personal decision and should be made in connection with your endocrinologist and specialist.