title: Changes in the choice of thyroidectomy for benign thyroid disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is an increasing trend towards performing more radical resections instead of a subtotal resection for benign thyroid disease. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of this change in practice on the surgical treatment of bilateral thyroid diseases in this unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data on 367 patients that underwent a bilateral thyroidectomy were categorized by dividing the operation types into 4 groups: (1) total thyroidectomy (TT), (2) near-total thyroidectomy, (3) Dunhill procedure, and (4) bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A statistically significant change in the choice of thyroidectomy occured during the study period (p < 0.001). TT has replaced subtotal thyroidectomy (STT; bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy and Dunhill procedure) as the preferred routine surgical procedure for bilateral benign thyroid diseases in this clinic. The permanent complication rates were similar for all surgical procedures. The rate of secondary thyroidectomy for both recurrence of multinodular goiter and incidental thyroid carcinoma were significantly higher in the STT groups, than the total in the TT and near-total thyroidectomy patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Total or near total thyroidectomy procedures are now being increasingly employed to treat bilateral benign thyroid disease, and are as safe as the sub-total thyroidectomy procedures, which are more conservative and associated with significantly higher recurrence rates.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. bcitgez@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Citgez
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uludag
authors.forename: Gurkan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yetkin
authors.forename: Faruk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yener
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Akgun
authors.forename: Adnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isgor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome