The Surgical Treatment Of Sub Sternal Goiters

Abstract

Background and Objective: Goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland than its normal size (40 g). The thyroid is submerged: when more than 50% or most of it is below the entrance to the chest. This study includes the role of surgical intervention and the surgical technique applied in patients for whom a thyroidectomy has been decided.

Materials and Methods: A retrospective study that includes all patients admitted to the two departments of thoracic surgery at Al-Assad University Hospital and Al-Mowasat University Hospital, with a diagnosis of Sub Sternal Goiters. The number of patients (154 patients) with Sub Sternal Goiters during the period from the beginning of 2001 until the end of 2020.

Results: The mean age was (48 years), and 71% of the patients demonstrated a mass in the neck, (16.8%) were asymptomatic, and the histopathology results showed that 81.8% were multi-node Goiter, and in 85% of patients the surgical procedure was completed only with a Cervical Approache. The percentage of complications was few, as temporary dysphonia occurred at 8.4%, and bleeding occurred in 7.8% of patients. Following up on patients after surgery, no deaths were recorded.

Conclusions: Sub Sternal Goiters can be present without symptoms, immersion thyroid is often an extension of the neck downward and can often be approached through a single Cervical Approache, which should always be the standard procedure in the surgical approach to commodities. Close and distant complications, knowing that there are few diseases and almost non-existent deaths even with the chest opening.