Beyond the standard preoperative evaluation: The impact of functional dependency on complications after thyroidectomy

Post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia and related complications

“…The incidence of post-thyroidectomy complications has greatly decreased in recent years, but it still causes great inconvenience to patients (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem, Saleem, & Saleem, 2018;Sidani, Islam, & Nwariaku, 2022). Postoperative hematoma, in general, occurs up to eight hours after the surgery, being rare after this period.…”

“…Postoperative hematoma, in general, occurs up to eight hours after the surgery, being rare after this period. It affects approximately 1.4% of thyroidectomized patients (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022).…”

“…The incidence of surgical wound infection varies from 0.0% to 2.7% of thyroidectomies and usually manifests itself from the fourth postoperative day onwards. As it is a clean operation, the infection results from poor asepsis technique or contamination of seromas or hematomas (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022). According to recent published studies, temporary paralysis of the recurrent laryngeal nerve occurs in 0 .0% to 5.0% of patients undergoing their first thyroid operation (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022).…”

“…As it is a clean operation, the infection results from poor asepsis technique or contamination of seromas or hematomas (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022). According to recent published studies, temporary paralysis of the recurrent laryngeal nerve occurs in 0 .0% to 5.0% of patients undergoing their first thyroid operation (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022). Definitive paralysis has an incidence ranging from 0.0% to 3.1%, reaching 10.5% in reoperations (Freitas, Levenhagen, Constantino, Paroni, & Martins, 2020;Alvaro Sanabria et al, 2019).…”

“…It should be considered, however, that in some cases, nerve preservation is not possible due to its involvement by the tumor. Injury to the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve is probably underestimated, since vocal fold function and laryngeal vestibule sensitivity are not always analyzed pre-and postoperatively (Alqahtani et al, 2020;Bawa et al, 2021;Pãduraru et al, 2019;Saleem et al, 2018;Sidani et al, 2022).…”