Hemithyroidectomy

Surgery performed by Dr Navin Niles Endocrine and Head & Neck Surgeon

What is the thyroid gland?

The thyroid gland is located at the front of your throat, below the larynx (Adam’s apple) in your neck. The thyroid gland produces hormones to regulate your body’s metabolic processes, including energy expenditure, heart rate, temperature, and growth.

Why would you need to undergo a Hemithyroidectomy?

Hemithyroidectomy means the removal of one of the thyroid lobes. It is the surgical procedure of choice for the management of a solitary thyroid nodule.

This is a safe operation with minimal risk of damaging either the parathyroid glands or the laryngeal nerves.

There are several indications for needing hemithyroidectomy surgery including:

·     Suspected thyroid cancer.

·     Compression symptoms.

·     Hyperthyroidism due to a solitary hyperfunctioning thyroid nodule.

·     Cosmetic reasons such as an unsightly lump in the front of the neck.

Uncommonly, you may need a total thyroidectomy depending on Dr Navin Niles suspicion for cancer during the procedure. The possibility for a total thyroidectomy will be explained to you pre-operatively.

What to expect from Thyroid surgery?

Thyroid surgery is performed under general anaesthesia and typically takes around 1-2 hours. Although you will be completely unconscious throughout the procedure, you will have breathing assists and body monitors to ensure everything is running smoothly and comfortably. Incisions can often be placed in a skin crease of the neck where it will be difficult to see once it heals.

Within hours of your surgery, you should be able to walk around, eat, and drink normally. However, your throat will still feel sore, and you should rest your neck. You might stay in the hospital for one or two days to recover post-surgery. Most people recover within 1-2 weeks.

Wound Healing

Just as every patient is different, so is every hemithyroidectomy scar. If you have a thin and long neck and the thyroid gland is not significantly large, the scar is usually about four centimetres along the collar line. The scar may need to be longer than this in situations where the neck is short and wide or the thyroid gland particularly large.

As the neck is a part of the body, which is usually visible in a clothed person we pay special attention to wound closure to ensure that as good a cosmetic result is achieved as possible. Most patients will have a faint and barely visible scar twelve months after surgery. Some patients are prone to form a raised and red (hypertrophic) scar.

This is usually seen in people with darker skin. Even this type of scar usually fades somewhat over six to eighteen months. If a scar is particularly hypertrophic, we may ask a plastic surgeon to advise regarding treatment, however, we usually wait for 12 months before referring.

Some patients have numbness of the skin above the scar, which can be problematic in men who shave. This numbness usually resolves over about six months. Unsatisfactory scars affect perhaps 3% of patients.

Early in the postoperative period, some patients experience a feeling of tightness in the neck. This symptom settles in most cases over about two weeks but may take up to six months to subside.

There may be a feeling of difficulty swallowing during that time and occasionally neck pain and an irritating cough. Rarely these symptoms can be persistent, but not severe.