Complications of 867 thyroidectomies performed in a region of endemic goiter in Turkey.

This article aims to define the incidence of complications in 867 thyroidectomies performed by residents with attending surgeons' supervision as part of a training programme, in a region of endemic goiter. Seven hundred and nine patients were female and 158 were male. The age of the patients ranged between 6 and 76 and mean age was 32.5. Cases were divided into two groups according to their disease nature. Group 1 included 805 patients with nodular colloidal goiter (NCG) and adenomas. The remaining 62 cases, 25 with recurrence of goiter (RG), 21 with thyroid malignancy (TM) and 16 with thyroiditis formed group 2. While the overall complication rate was 11.3% (93 cases) in group 1, it was 20.9% (13 cases) in group 2. The mortality rate was zero in both groups. The incidence of complications of 867 thyroidectomies performed by residents with the attending surgeons' supervision was within acceptable limits especially as far as group 1 was concerned. However we suggested that attending surgeons themselves, disregarding residents training, should perform the operation in special cases such as recurrent goiters, thyroid carcinomas with positive regional lymph nodes and thyroiditis with regional adhesions.