The analysis of surgical treatment results of 27.253 patients with various diseases of thyroid cancer is performed in St. Petersburg, Endocrine Surgery and Oncology Center. A classification of urgent surgery for complications of disease (277/1.0 %) or postoperative states that required reinterventions (246/0.9 %) in period from 1973 to 2012 is developed. Altogether immediate and urgent operations are performed in 523 (1.9 %) patients. Various thyroid diseases (cervical-retrosternal goiter, anaplastic carcinoma, strumitis, thyroiditis) or the progression of inflammation of the neck and / or mediastinum became a cause of neck compression and subsequently required urgent interventions in 277 (1.0 %) cases. Complications of early postoperative period (mobility disorders of the vocal cords, postoperative bleeding, and rupture of the trachea) served as an occasion to emergency operations in 246 (0.9 %) cases. The measures of prevention, prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment of patients with life-threatening complications in thyroid surgery are examined.
Contributors to thyroid surgeryNikolai Ivanovich Pirogov (1810-1881) was a genius in the field of Russian surgery (Fig. 1). At the age of 20, at a written test to defend his Doctor of Medicine degree, he presented his understanding of the structure and function of
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