Experience in the surgical treatment of diseases of the thyroid gland

Over a 7‐yr period from January 1967 to January 1974, 141 patients underwent thyroid surgery for various pathology at the Bexar County Hospital‐University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio. Of these, 113 patients underwent subtotal thyroidectomy for benign diseases, including 28 of thyrotoxic patients who underwent subtotal thyroidectomy as definitive treatment. In this group of patients special interest and emphasis was placed in the preoperative and intraoperative management of the difficult and complicated hyperthyroid patient. Preoperative treatment was accomplished by the utilization of multiple drug combinations—including antithyroid drugs, adrenergic blocking agents, and iodine—which resulted in a significant decrease in preparation time for surgery. Furthermore, this short intensive preoperative management of complicated hyperthyroid patients allowed satisfactory correction of their problems with little or no morbidity which otherwise would have been extremely difficult if not impossible to resolve. At operation, 28 patients were diagnosed to have malignant disease; 23 underwent total thyroidectomy and the other 5 had subtotal thyroidectomy. In addition to total or subtotal thyroidectomy, 23 patients had either classical or modified radical neck dissection including 9 patients who had bilateral neck dissection. The various surgical techniques utilized, the rationale for rapid preoperative preparation of complicated hyperthyroid patients, morbidity, and long‐term follow‐up are discussed.