Table 4.
Comparison of operative outcomes between patients with thyroid lobe < or ≥ 6 cm
| Lobe size < 6 cm (n = 598; 92.0%) | Lobe size ≥ 6 cm (n = 52; 8.0%) | Total (n = 650) | p value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital stay (day; mean ± SD) | 2.3 ± 0.9 | 2.4 ± 0.8 | 2.3 ± 0.9 | 0.864 |
| Operative time (min; mean ± SD) | 84.1 ± 28.5 | 93.9 ± 34.0 | 84.8 ± 29.0 | 0.452 |
| Hemithyroidectomy | 78.1 ± 27.0 | 91.2 ± 46.1 | 78.0 ± 27.8 | 0.179 |
| Total thyroidectomy | 94.5 ± 27.6 | 87.9 ± 10.3 | 95.4 ± 27.5 | 0,529 |
| Overall postsurgical complications, n (%) | 40 (6.7%) | 6 (11.5%) | 46 (7.1%) | 0.920 |
| RLN palsy, n (%) | ||||
| Transient | 9 (1.5%) | 1 (1.9%) | 10 (1.5%) | 0.102 |
| Permanent | 1 (0.2%) | 0 | 1 (0.1%) | 0.871 |
| Hypocalcaemiaa, n (%) | ||||
| Transient | 9 (3.5%) | 2 (7.1%) | 11 (3.9%) | 0.571 |
| Permanent | 2 (0.8%) | 1 (3.6%) | 3 (1.1%) | 0.860 |
| Hematoma, n (%) | 6 (1.0%) | 0 | 6 (0.9%) | 0.690 |
| Bleeding which requires reoperation, n (%) | 3 (0.5%) | 0 | 3 (0.5%) | 0.778 |
| Seroma, n (%) | 4 (0.7%) | 2 (3.8%) | 6 (0.9%) | 0.609 |
| Unconventional complications, n (%) | 6 (1.0%) | 0 | 6 (0.9%) | 0,716 |
| Tracheal injury | 2 (0.3%) | 0 | 2 (0.3%) | NA |
| Brachial plexus injury | 2 (0.3%) | 0 | 2 (0.3%) | NA |
| Track seeding | 1 (0.2%) | 0 | 1 (0.2%) | NA |
| Bernard-Horner | 1 (0.2%) | 0 | 1 (0.2%) | NA |
SD standard deviation, RLN recurrent laryngeal nerve, NA not available
aConsidering only total thyroidectomies + completion thyroidectomies