Should the thyroid bed be drained after thyroidectomy?
BACKGROUND
Although routine drainage of the thyroidectomy bed is not an evidenced-based practice, most surgeons still employ routine drainage with an effort to monitor postoperative bleeding. The aim of this study is present our experience on draining and not draining the thyroidectomy bed.


METHODS
Records of 1,066 patients who underwent thyroid surgery were evaluated retrospectively.


RESULTS
The rates of the re-operations due to life-threatening postoperative hemorrhage and wound infections were higher in the drained group. The average postoperative hospital stay of the drained group was significantly longer than that of the non-drained group.


CONCLUSIONS
Routine drainage of the thyroidectomy bed is not effective in decreasing the rate of postoperative complications after thyroid surgery, and it causes a prolonged hospital stay and surgical site infection.
Ozlem
Nuraydin
N
Department of General Surgery, Ataturk Egitim ve Arastirma Hospital, Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey.
Ozdogan
Mehmet
M
Gurer
Ahmet
A
Gomceli
Ismail
I
Aydin
Raci
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004322:Drainage / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013965:Thyroidectomy; D016896:Treatment Outcome