title: Thyroglossal surgery in Scotland 1981-2010.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thyroglossal surgery is not common in Scotland with 0.013 procedures performed per 1000 population in 2010. There is a growing practice in surgery to consolidate service providers to ensure a minimum 'case volume', with the belief that this will raise standards and improve co-ordination of services. We investigated thyroglossal surgery to see if this had occurred.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data on thyroglossal surgery performed in Scotland from 1981 to 2010 were obtained from the Information Services Division of NHS Scotland. This was analysed to investigate the number of procedures involving thyroglossal tissue, the surgical speciality of operating surgeon and the health board in which the procedure was performed. Whilst the number of thyroglossal operations has remained essentially static over the study period, there has been a steady trend of consolidation of the surgical speciality performing the procedure. In 1981, 58% of thyroglossal surgery was performed by general surgeons, 18% by paediatric surgeons and 15% by ENT surgeons nationally. In 2010, ENT surgeons are performing 81%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that the provision of thyroglossal surgery is being consolidated in Scotland by speciality and that ENT surgeons are providing this service in the majority of cases.
authors.affiliation: Specialty Registrar, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK Richard.townsley@nhs.net.
authors.forename: Richard B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Townsley
authors.affiliation: Consultant, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK.
authors.forename: Omar J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Hilmi
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013955:Thyroglossal Cyst / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Thyroglossal; consolidation; surgical specialities