Thyroidectomy

Excerpt

Thyroidectomy is a well-described procedure used to excise the thyroid gland. It is a common procedure in modern medicine and may be used to treat malignancy, benign disease, or hormonal disease that is not responsive to medical management.

The delicate anatomy of the anterior neck, the critical nature of adjacent structures, and tight working spaces make thyroidectomy a challenging procedure to perform safely and effectively. Thyroidectomy, as a procedure, has developed as the anatomic understanding and surgical approaches have evolved. In the 1870s, Billroth and Kocher pioneered the classic thyroidectomy and reported a mortality rate of 8%, a significant success at the time. By the time Theodor Kocher was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909, mortality rates had fallen to less than 1% for his development of the surgery.

While the general tenets of the surgery have remained the same, improvements in technique, diagnostics, understanding of relative anatomy, anesthesia techniques, and technology have allowed thyroidectomies to become a standard, effective, and safe procedure throughout most of the world with a mortality far, far, below that landmark 1% from Kocher's time.