Urgent operations for diseases of the thyroid gland and postoperative complications

Anasplastic carcinoma of the thyroid gland (243 cases), polinodous goiter of cervical retrosternal localization (25 cases), acute purulent strumitis or thyroiditis (9 cases) induced disturbance of aero-digestive organs of the neck and resulted in the necessary urgent surgical care. The most dangerous complications after 23777 operations on the TG requiring repeated surgical intervention were bilateral lesion of the recurrent nerves (1% of observations), hemorrhages in the TG bed (0.38% of observations). Timely surgical treatment as well as exact knowledge of the neck anatomy, visual control of the recurrent laryngeal nerves, cover of the nerves and lessening the TG bed volume with a part of the parietal leaf of the 4th fascia of the neck in each thyroid operation considerably decreased the danger of asphyxia and the appearance of life threatening complications at the early postoperative period.