Hypothesis: The complication rate for thyroidectomy is the same in patients with and without a history of radiation exposure.
Design: Retrospective medical record review of 171 consecutive patients who had a previous history of radiation treatment and had undergone a thyroid operation from 1961 to 1999.
Setting: University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center and affiliated hospitals.
Patients: We selected 107 patients with a history of radiation exposure who had undergone thyroid operations (81 total thyroidectomies) and 107 control patients who underwent comparable operations but had no history of radiation exposure.
Results: Among patients with a history of radiation exposure (mean age, 47.2 years), there was 1 recurrent nerve injury, 1 external nerve injury, 20 patients with transient hypocalcemia, and 1 patient with a hematoma. Among patients without a history of radiation exposure (mean age, 47.5 years), there were 2 recurrent nerve injuries, 18 patients with transient hypocalcemia, and 1 patient with a hematoma. All cases of hypocalcemia and recurrent nerve injury in both groups were transient. One patient had a permanent superior laryngeal nerve injury. In patients who underwent operations since January 1, 1990, duration of hospitalization was 1.2 days in patients with a history of radiation exposure (65 patients) and 1.1 days in patients without (101 patients).
Conclusions: Our data document that the risk of transient and permanent complications after total thyroidectomy is similar in patients with and without a history of radiation exposure. The relatively low long-term complication rate supports prophylactic total thyroidectomy for patients with thyroid nodules and a history of radiation exposure.