Table 1.

Post-operative results of published bilateral thyroidectomy techniques used in cats

Bilateral thyroidectomy technique	Reference	Number of cats	Recurrence rate	Postoperative hypocalcaemia
				Overall	Severe *
Extracapsular	Holzworth et al (1980)	9	0%	NA	33%
Extracapsular	Flanders et al (1987)	11	9%	82%	62%
Intracapsular	Birchard et al (1984)	53	8%	15%	8%
Intracapsular	Welches et al (1989)	50	22%	22%	12%
Intracapsular	Swalec et al (1990)	26	8%	26%	15%
Modified intracapsular	Flanders et al (1987)	18	5%	36%	15%
Modified intracapsular	Welches et al (1989)	36	0%	33%	20%
Modified extracapsular	Welches et al (1989)	26	4%	23%	11%
Staged intracapsular	Flanders et al (1987)	11	0%	11%	0%
Staged with parathyroid reimplantation	Norsworthy (1995)	10	0%	0%	0%

^*Became tetanic or required intravenous calcium therapy to prevent tetany.