A UK-Wide Survey of Life-Threatening Thyroidectomy Complications.pdfVIP

SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research Journal of Thyroid Research Volume 2011, Article ID 329620, 5 pages doi:10.4061/2011/329620 Research Article A UK-Wide Survey of Life-Threatening Thyroidectomy Complications Z. K. Hassan-Smith, P. Gopinath, and F. Mihaimeed Department of Surgery, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust, Glen Road Plaistow, London E13 8SL, UK Correspondence should be addressed to F. Mihaimeed, faisal.mihaimeed@newhamhealth.nhs.uk Received 13 June 2010; Revised 6 December 2010; Accepted 6 January 2011 Academic Editor: Fausto Bogazzi Copyright © 2011 Z. K. Hassan-Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background and Aims. Complications following thyroidectomy can prolong hospital stay and cause significant morbidity particularly for patients treated for benign thyroid conditions. Our aim was to administer a UK-wide survey of thyroid surgery units on frequency and timing of the onset of life-threatening airway complications correlate to factors that might be associated with them. Methods. A questionnaire including the number of and timing of the onset of life-threatening airway complications, number of thyroidectomy procedures performed per year, surgeon years of experience, the use of difficult airway management protocol, post-operative patient destination, and patient deaths, was sent to 80 UK surgical units. Results. 23/41 hospitals responded reported no postthyroidectomy airway complications. Life-threatening airways complications all occurred within the first 12 hours postoperatively, with 9 cases occurring in the recovery room and in less