title: Airway emergency from spontaneous haemorrhagic thyroid cancer.
abstract: Spontaneous thyroid haemorrhages are rare. There are reported cases occurring in thyroid nodules and cysts but none in thyroid malignancies. We describe a 48 year old who presented to the on-call ENT team with a rapidly progressing neck swelling that was interfering with his airway. After resuscitation, the patient underwent a right lobectomy to stop the bleeding. Histology showed a thyroid follicular carcinoma. As per the regional multidisciplinary team discussion, he underwent a completion thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine treatment. We conclude that spontaneous haemorrhages of the thyroid gland can occur in malignancies and stress the importance of early histological diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Ipswich Hospital Trust, Heath Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 5PD, United Kingdom. shivan5@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vijendren
authors.affiliation: Ipswich Hospital Trust, Heath Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 5PD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ladha
authors.affiliation: Ipswich Hospital Trust, Heath Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 5PD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Hilger