Endocrine Surgery Tygerberg Hospital
You will be managed by a TEAM of doctors. Each member of the team has a very specific role, and we need the whole team in order to offer you the best thyroid care.
Tygerberg Hospital is an academic hospital, so there are different levels of specialists you will encounter within the team. The advantage is that you will have a lot of thought and discussion around your case, and you might even learn something when we do our academic rounds!
Endocrine surgeons, Oncologists, Endocrinologists and Anaesthetists focus specifically on your type of disease. We will try and explain more about your disease process and why we are recommending surgery:
The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ in the neck under the voice box, it lies against and around the windpipe at the base of the throat. The thyroid produces thyroid hormone which helps the body to make energy, stay warm, and helps the brain, heart, muscles, and other organs to function as they should. Your body can not survive without thyroid hormone.
Surgery is recommended for a number of reasons. These include treatment of:
Surgery might also be indicated if the mass in your thyroid is suspicious for a cancer, and we can’t prove it otherwise with our biopsy. We call this ‘’diagnostic’’ surgery.
There are mainly 2 types of thyroid operations:
An individualised approach is used: your surgeon will recommend the operation that is most suitable for your disease, depending on the reason for surgery as well as your scan results.
If you have thyroid cancer, and there are lymph nodes that looks like they might have cancer in, you might need the lymph nodes removed as well. This is called a lymph node dissection.
The most important risks of surgery include:
These risks are higher in patients undergoing surgery for cancer and removal of lymph nodes, a second or third operation, and for large thyroid glands that extend behind the sternum.
These risks are less than 1%, but each patient differs, and your surgeon will explain to your specific benefits and risks of the surgery when you need to give permission for the operation.
It depends on how much of the thyroid is removed. If only half is removed (lobectomy), there is an 20% chance that you will need thyroid hormone medication. If the whole thyroid is removed, you will have to take thyroid hormone tablets for the rest of your life.
You will have a drain in your wound after the operation. This is to decrease the chance of swelling in your neck and it is removed when there is less than 30ml in your drain in 24 hours.
The suture is absorbable, so you do not have to remove it. Keep your dressing on for a week after the operation, and then thereafter you can use micropore as directed by your doctor.
We can do our best to treat your wound so that it heals with minimal scarring, but it is your responsibility to take this further in the months to come – it can take up to a year for the wound to take on its permanent shape.
We recommend one of two options:
When you are discharged from the hospital, make sure the ward doctor gives you a blood form so that your bloods can be taken 3 days before coming to the Endocrine Clinic for follow up (as needed).
You will get your dates for follow up at discharge and your pathology results will be discussed with you during this visit, as well as the future follow up plans.