Talk:Thyroidectomy

Comments

I've move the original text I've found here to here

A thyroidectomy (or thyroidotomy) is a surgical procedure that removes the thyroid gland. It is often performed when a person has thyroid cancer, or some other condition of the thyroid gland, including thyroiditis and hypothyroidism. This gland produces a number of hormones, such as thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), and calcitonin, that regulates the metabolism of the cells of the rest of the body, so such an operation can be detrimental to the body (similar to a splenectomy).

External Link

• http://health.yahoo.com/health/encyclopedia/001159/0.html

because some of it is wrong (thyroidotomy is a procedure that CUTS the thyroid, thyroidectomy REMOVES thyroid tissue, and such surgery is NOT done for hypothyroidism. Some of the other stuff belongs in an article on the thyroid, and I'm not sure why it's repeated here, though I may leave it alone. I also wouldn't compare a thyroidectomy to a splenectomy: if your thyroid is removed, you need to take replacement thyroid hormones for the rest of your life. If your spleen is removed your scar will show when you sunbathe. -- Someone else 01:28 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

This isn't completely true. Many people without spleens will need to take pencillin for the rest of their life. In the same way that throid hormones are taken to replace the functions of the thyroid, the pencillin replaces one of the functions of the spleen - ie- fighting infection. spleenless Angela.

Most people without a spleen do just fine with or without medication: they won't die in a week if they don't take their medication, which is prophylactic rather than life-sustaining, which makes the procedure much more benign than a thymectomy. The penicillin in any case does not "replace" the spleen: it helps in the same general process, but by a different mechanism. The spleen allows opsonization of bacteria; penicillin kills bacteria by interfering with cell-wall synthesis. Thyroid replacement is actually replacement. -- Someone else 21:42, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Very true. I wasn't suggesting changing the article, just pointing out that having a splenectomy is a little more than "having a scar which will show when you sunbathe". I'm not sure I agree with your comment saying people will do fine without medication though as various cases do require the long-term use of pencillin after a splenectomy, particularly for the first 2 years. Perhaps I'll get round to writing an article on splenectomies soon. spleenless Angela.

We could use one. The bikini line was perhaps a bit flippant and may not have translated well into print: an attempt to be amusing: clearly a spleen is better than no spleen. The penicillin recommendation is not universal: some would advise it, some would not, risk and benefits have to be assessed in each individual case, at least partially on the basis of the reason splenectomy occurred. Just as notes, you might want to include the so-called "auto-splenectomy" cases (where hemoglobinopathy results in multiple splenic infarctions causing loss of function without surgery, and talk about the advisability of receiving pneumovax vaccination before splenectomy if the procedure is at all elective. -- Someone else 01:15, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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I think that saying that the medication "replaces" the hormones is rather misleading - the patient will never feel as good as when they had a normal functioning thyroid. -- Marj 05:56 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

I think you are reading too much into "replace". The purpose is to replace the lacking hormone: medication can't replace the regulatory function of the gland. Of course it's better to have a functioning thyroid than to have to take thyroid medication. That's not an option when you have thyroid cancer. It's better to be not diabetic than have to take insulin to replace the insulin the pancreas isn't delivering. In both cases the purpose of the medication is to replace the hormone that is deficient: in both cases the replacement is suboptimal because no medication regimen can be as finely-tuned as the feedback mechanism of an intact endocrine system. "Replacement" is pretty much what it's called: perhaps this is jargon. Anyway, see if you like the new version. -- Someone else 06:18 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

Medical Advice?

The part in the first paragraph that states "patients are strongly advised to only be operated on by surgeons who protect the voice by using electronic nerve monitoring" sounds like medical advice to me. In fact, there isn't even a citation there. It seems like you can't get much more removed from the intentions of wikipedia there... Skiingdemon (talk) 21:04, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

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Defining Acronyms: Please define MNG = multi-nodular goitre for clarity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.145.49 (talk) 21:46, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Complications/changes to patient's life

I have an Italian friend who is having her thyroid removed, and she tells me that her Italian doctors told her she is going to have to sleep with a special pillow for the rest of her life. Is this common? Can someone who knows add that to this article as a possible change to a person's life if they have their thyroid removed (like, along with your voice changing). Thanks in advance to anybody that knows. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Betathetapi545 (talk • contribs) 20:24, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

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Maybe a medical illustration on top?

I wasn't expecting to see such a gory photo as soon as I opened the page. -- kazerniel (talk | contribs) 13:59, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

Article arrangement

I've rearranged the article a bit, moving most of a very long intro to the new "variants" section, but someone with more expertise in both Wiki and Thyroids than me should take a look at that and some of the literature, because I think there might be some redundancy between the Variants and the Types section. Ben-net-duck (talk) 03:30, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: 2025-26 TCOM WikiMed

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 March 2026 and 28 March 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Brotherbear4 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: R2DLiou.

— Assignment last updated by Butterchicken228 (talk) 01:18, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

Types of thyroidectomy and procedural variants

It seems these sections may be a bit too technical for the casual reader. Additionally, there is no citation for the "Types of thyroidectomy" section in case someone wants to read more. Brotherbear4 (talk) 15:04, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Work plan

I have been working on copyediting, as well as adding more information about pre- and post-op management and the history of the procedure. I would like to also add some basic information about the steps of the most common procedural approach, as well as information regarding the transaxillary and transoral approaches. I would also like to add a more approachable image to the info box, and move the current one down to the "Procedure" section. However, I am having difficulty finding one that is for public access.

Lead

I think your Lead includes a clear and concise description of the article's topic and summarizes the majority of the article well. One thing that I see that could be improved upon is also summarizing some additional content provided in your "content" section of your article, including types of thyroidectomy and procedural variants. I don't think history necessarily has to be included in the Lead section. My personal opinion as far as organization would be to summarize the history section first, indications, types of thyroidectomy, procedural variants, pre and post operative management, and lastly complications.

Content

Overall I think the content of the article contains a lot of what to consider regarding thyroidectomy. One thing that I think that could be expanded upon is detailing the surgical procedure itself. It might be difficult to get step by step information regarding surgical approach; however I think a brief overview in terms of important anatomy to consider and important steps during the surgery would strengthen the article. Some additional recommendations that might elevate the article is to add decision making rationale when it comes to when to proceed with certain types of thyroidectomy.

Indications:

I like how you presented the information in a bullet point format, giving the reader a concise overview. For consistency sake, it seems like most of your bullet points use incomplete sentences, so I would advise to keep it consistent throughout when describing the indications for thyroidectomy. For example, your first sentence regarding thyroid nodules could be "Thyroid nodules, the most common indication for thyroidectomy."

Pre- and post- operative management:

Pre-operative management:

I like the content of this paragraph. It's an easy read and the progression of information flows well. The only thing I can nitpick on is providing information on most commonly used non-selective beta blockers in the setting of pre-operative control of tachycardia in hyperthyroid patients because you provided some examples of anti-thyroid medications like methimazole and propythiouracil. I guess one thing that could be included in pre-operative management is imaging of the thyroid to assess the anatomy beforehand to help the surgeons get an idea of how to approach the surgery.

Post-operative management:

The content is good and provides overview over management of post-operative hypothyroidism and hypocalcemia, which are definite considerations after thyroidectomy.

Complications and risks:

I like how you presented the complications in bullet point format, making it readable. One little suggestion to improve the flow and consistency of the section is that your heading says "Complications and risks" but you first mention the risks then expand on complications. This could probably be ignored because it seems like this section has more information regarding complications rather than risks, and I can see if you want to emphasize "Complications" first in the heading. Another little thing is that majority of your bullet points consist of incomplete sentences, except this one, "Horner's syndrome is rarely seen as a triad of ptosis, miosis, and anhidrosis." So you could just get rid of the "is" and it would read, "Horner's syndrome, rarely seen as a triad of ptosis, miosis, and anhidrosis."

Types of thyroidectomy

I like how extensive the list of "types of thyroidectomy" are. The pictures associated with it also provide a great visual aid for some of the more common procedures. One suggestion I have with the organization/structure is to try to maintain either complete or incomplete sentences throughout the bullet points, especially for the first sentence describing the procedure. For example, the first sentences are all incomplete sentences:

• Subtotal thyroidectomy — Removal of majority of both lobes leaving behind 4-5 grams (equivalent to the size of a normal thyroid gland) of thyroid tissue on one or both sides—this used to be the most common operation for multinodular goitre.
• Partial thyroidectomy —Removal of gland in front of trachea after mobilization. Done in nontoxic multinodular goiter. Its role is controversial.
• Hartley Dunhill operation — Removal of 1 entire lateral lobe with isthmus and partial/subtotal removal of opposite lateral lobe. Done in nontoxic MNG, but rarely performed in the United States.

Where as,

• Hemithyroidectomy — Entire isthmus is removed along with 1 lobe. Done in benign diseases of only 1 lobe.
• Near total thyroidectomy — Both lobes are removed except for a small amount of thyroid tissue (on one or both sides) in the vicinity of the recurrent laryngeal nerve entry point and the superior parathyroid gland.
• Total thyroidectomy — Entire gland is removed. Done in cases of papillary or follicular carcinoma of thyroid, medullary carcinoma of thyroid. This is now also the most common operation for multinodular goiter. (Also this in your article, goiter was spelled "goitre" here)

these first sentences are complete sentences. Other accessory information can be written in whichever way flows the best.

Procedural variants

I like the content and organization of the paragraphs. I particularly liked the section where you differentiated between thyroidectomy and thyroidotomy because these words can certainly can be confusing.

History

I like how you included all the significant history detailing when the first procedure was done as well as present it in chronological order. I guess if you wanted to add more to include more of the present developments regarding thyroidectomy, you could, but I think the content you have now is sufficient to describe more of the deep history of when a how a thyroidectomy was performed.

References

Looking into your references, it looks like majority of the sources can be accessed accessibly and come from reliable and some reputable sources. Just by reading the content of your article, I also can tell about the reliability of the information you gathered from these resources.

Overall, I think you did a great job writing this article and there's some minor structural changes I recommend as well as some suggestions regarding adding additional content. R2DLiou (talk) 18:04, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

COI edit request: add transoral (vestibular) approach to surgical approaches

Disclosure: I have a conflict of interest as I am connected to the surgeon who developed this technique, so I am not editing the article directly and instead request that an independent editor consider the following addition.

The section on minimally invasive / remote-access approaches currently mentions the trans-axillary and bilateral axillo-breast approaches but not the transoral (vestibular) approach, which is now a widely reported remote-access technique. I propose adding a neutral, secondary-sourced sentence such as:

Another remote-access technique is the transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA), in which the thyroid is removed through small incisions inside the lower lip, leaving no scar on the neck. It was reported by Angkoon Anuwong in a 2016 case series in the World Journal of Surgery, and a 2018 comparative study in JAMA Surgery reported that it could be performed as safely as conventional open thyroidectomy while avoiding a neck scar.

Please feel free to reword for tone or placement. Thank you. Clipmobile (talk) 12:17, 19 July 2026 (UTC) Clipmobile (talk) 12:17, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Update — additional independent source (21 July 2026). An independent 2026 bibliometric analysis of the TOETVA literature — Varman A, Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA): a bibliometric analysis of research trends and scientific collaboration, Journal of Medicine and Palliative Care 2026;7(2):401-407, doi:10.47582/jompac.1861300 — examined 155 Web of Science-indexed publications (2014-2025) and reported that the transoral (vestibular) approach is a rapidly growing, widely reported remote-access technique, with the 2016 report by Anuwong being the most cited and most central publication in this literature. Offered as a further independent secondary source in support of the proposed addition. Clipmobile (talk) 15:40, 21 July 2026 (UTC)