Surgical treatment of thyroid diseases in elderly patients.
BACKGROUND
We evaluated the safety of thyroid surgery in elderly patients, in whom surgical procedures usually are considered more hazardous than in younger patients.


METHODS
The medical records of all the patients who were aged 70 years or older who had undergone thyroid surgery between January 1998 and June 2008 were reviewed.


RESULTS
A total of 320 patients were included. The preoperative diagnosis was multinodular goiter in 171 cases, toxic goiter in 59 cases, suspicious or indeterminate thyroid nodule in 60 cases, and thyroid carcinoma in 30 patients. Total thyroidectomy was performed in 283 patients, thyroid lobectomy in 15 patients, and a completion thyroidectomy was performed in 22 patients. The final histology showed thyroid cancer in 86 patients and benign disease in 234.


CONCLUSIONS
Thyroid surgery in patients aged 70 years or older is safe and the relatively high rate of thyroid carcinoma and toxic goiter may justify an aggressive approach.
Raffaelli
Marco
M
Division of Endocrine Surgery-Department of Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, L. go A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy. marcoraffaelli@rm.unicatt.it
Bellantone
Rocco
R
Princi
Pietro
P
De Crea
Carmela
C
Rossi
Esther D
ED
Fadda
Guido
G
Lombardi
Celestino P
CP
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome