Reoperative thyroid surgery may be necessary in recurrent simple goiters, thyrotoxicosis and especially cancers of the thyroid gland. The present series reviewed 33 cases representing 7.3 % from our experience consisting of 440 thyroid operations. Five patients had undergone two prior operation. Details of original procedures were available only for 26 patients, the first operations being carried "extra muros" in 20 cases. There were 25 women and 8 men with mean patient age 44.5 (range 22-75) years, which had undergone one prior operations. The interval between the primary operation and the second one varies between 5 days and 44 years. Eleven cases had benign lesions: eight with uni or bilateral nodular goiters and three thyrotoxicosis (two with Basedow-Graves'disease and one with toxic adenoma) for which nodulectomy, subtotal lobectomies or thyroidectomies were performed. In twenty one cases the surgical indication was done for persistent or recurrent thyroid carcinomas (16 papillary, two follicular and one case each of medullary, anaplastic and malignant lymphoma). Among these 6 patients underwent completion total thyroidectomies associated in 9 another patients with radical or modified neck dissection and in the 6 remaining cases conservative procedures (lobectomies, tumoral excision) of the gland or nodes were done. Complications, includes two recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, two spontaneously healed esophageal fistulas and one case each of permanent hypothyroidism and hypoparathyroidism. Reoperative thyroid surgery constitute a valuable surgical procedure for persistence or recurrence of benign and especially malignant thyroid lesions but is associated with significant increased risk of functional and anatomic complications rate than those of the initial surgery.