Indications and Morbidity of Reoperative Thyroid Surgeries in a Military Hospital of Senegal.

OBJECTIVES: To describe reoperative thyroid surgeries in our department.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional and descriptive study at the Ouakam Military Hospital in Dakar (Senegal), over a period of eight and a half years.

METHODS: The study involved all records of patients who had a reoperative thyroidectomy regardless of the indication and time of the second surgery. Parameters evaluated for first and reoperative surgery were time interval between the two surgeries, operative indications, surgical procedures, intraoperative findings, pathological examination, and morbidity.

RESULTS: 30 records of patients were selected out of a total of 698 thyroidectomies (4.3%). Thyroid cancers diagnosed on first surgical specimens were the first indications of reoperations (46.67%) followed by neck hematoma (20%). Completion thyroidectomy with a prophylactic central lymph nodes dissection was the most performed surgical procedure (43.33%) followed by haemostasis (20%). During reoperation, we found active bleeding (20%), textiloma (6.67%), and fourth branchial cleft fistula (3.33%). The morbidity accounted for 10%: lymphorrhea, permanent hypocalcemia, and permanent recurrent nerve palsy, in one case, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the morbidity in patients reoperated on and the one for patients operated on once.

CONCLUSION: We did not find an increased risk of postoperative morbidity after reintervention.