Thyroid Surgery and Inadvertent Removal of Parathyroids

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the incidence of inadvertent parathyroid removal during thyroid surgery and define its associated risk factors. In this single-center record-based study, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical and pathological records of 462 patients undergoing thyroidectomy. Incidental parathyroidectomy was detected in 61 of 462 patients (13.2%). The incidence of inadvertent parathyroid removal was 17.6% (36 of 205 patients) in patients having malign thyroid diseases, compared with 9.7% (25 of 257 patients) in patients with benign thyroid diseases (p = 0.045). Incidentally removed parathyroid tissue was intrathyroidal in 8 of the 61 patients. Thus, the ratio of intrathyroidal parathyroid tissue among all patients was 1.7% (8 out of 462). Central neck dissection was carried out in 40 patients (8.7%). Fourteen of these 40 patients (35%) had an incidental parathyroid in their specimen compared with 47 of 422 patients (11.1%) who did not undergo central neck dissection (p<0.001). Incidental parathyroidectomy occurred in 13.2% of patients undergoing thyroidectomy in our study. The majority of patients had one parathyroid identified in their specimen. Central neck dissection was significantly predictive for incidental parathyroidectomy. Well-trained senior otolaryngology residents can safely perform thyroid surgery with similar rates of incidental parathyroidectomy as their masters.