The use of fibrin tissue glue in thyroid surgery: resource utilization implications.

Current hospital resource limitations prompted efforts to shorten the postoperative in-hospital recovery time after thyroid and parathyroid surgery by hastening the removal of wound drains. Thirty patients' wounds were closed with fibrin tissue glue (Tisseel) and sutures. These were retrospectively compared with 30 randomly selected patients undergoing identical procedures and standard suture closures. Mean drainage the first postoperative night was 18 ml in the test group versus 39 ml in the controls. The average times to drain removal were 1.6 days and 2.2 days respectively. The mean test postoperative hospital stay was reduced by 0.9 days in test patients (2.8 days versus 3.7 days). There was no difference in the complication rate between the two groups. Using this technique, significant increases in the efficiency of resource utilization appear to be possible. A randomized prospective trial of fibrin glue versus traditional closure is required at this time to verify the usefulness of fibrin tissue glue in thyroid surgery.