You probably have been diagnosed with a thyroid issue and your doctor has prescribed surgery.
The issue may be your thyroid gland. If it’s overactive, has grown very large doctors recommend surgery or if your thyroid gland has nodules and cysts. The worst case of growth could be of cancer.
Whichever the case, your doctor would have suggested you undergo surgery and remove a part of the gland.
Here are some things you should know before you go under the knife.
1. What portion of the gland will be removed?
There are two scenarios
As Dr. Simone, MD says “If only half your thyroid is enlarged and causing symptoms, but the other half is normal, then half should be removed,”
But
If your whole gland is enlarged and becoming toxic, a procedure called total thyroidectomy is carried out to remove the entire gland.
2. What type of thyroid surgery are you undergoing?
Most of the surgeries are performed by creating an incision in the front of your neck. The size of this incision depends on two criteria
- The size of your neck
- The complexity of your thyroid issue.
Dr. Simone, a doctor at Southlake General Surgery says
“We use a small incision, which minimizes the scar.”
3. When is it best to use robot assistant surgery? Is it suitable for you?
The best advantage of robot assistant surgery is that there is absolutely no scar. A small incision is made under your arm and small instruments are inserted into the incision. Using the high definition 3D the surgeon guides the instrument under your skin to your thyroid. This avoids a neck scar.
Southlake General Surgery’s surgeon Dr. Valeria Simone, MD, has years of experience with this technique.
He says “Some patients are candidates for this procedure, as long as the thyroid isn’t too big,” “However, if it’s thyroid cancer and it’s too advanced or has spread beyond the thyroid, then a conventional surgical approach is best.”
4. How many thyroid surgeries does the doctor perform in a year?
Southlake General Surgery believes that doctors who perform more than 25 thyroid surgeries a year are much less prone to having complications.
A senior doctor Valeria Simone says
” if a doctor does fewer than 25 procedures a year on average, their patients have about a 50 percent increase in the likelihood of having a complication,”
Southlake General Surgery is the best hospital for thyroid cancer surgery. The doctors are friendly and only doctors with more than 25 years of experience perform the operation.