title: Giant goitre: a surgical scourge.
abstract: The giant goitre is an interesting phenomenon almost exclusively confined to regions of endemic goitre. A majority of patients with giant goitre usually desire operation for social and cosmetic reasons. Some of them however suffer frequent attacks of intercurrent respiratory tract infection which complicates the post-operative course. About a fifth of them present with acute respiratory distress requiring emergency surgery. The peri-operative management of this disease is both formidable and hazardous. The operative time is not only longer than for a standard thyroidectomy but mortality can also be unacceptably high. In this paper the author reports his personal experience with 30 patients whose resected specimens weighed between 500g and 1750g. There was a total of six complications; one patient developed a deep haematoma which produced respiratory distress post-operatively. Five patients developed suture abscesses at intervals after the operation. There was no mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Nmadu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006043:Goiter, Endemic / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000209:etiology; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013536:Suture Techniques; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors