Comparison of different thyroid surgical procedures and their outcomes/complications for benign disease in relation to expertise of the surgeon in a public hospital of a developing country over 2 decades

Objective: To compare the frequency of postoperative complications with thyroid surgical procedures and the expertise of the surgeon.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study from 1999 to 2018.

Setting: A public sector tertiary care teaching hospital.

Participants and methods: Patients undergoing thyroid surgery (lobectomy with isthmusectomy, subtotal thyroidectomy (STT), near total thyroidectomy (NTT), or total thyroidectomy (TT)) were included. Expertise level 1, 2 and 3 (L1, L2, L3) of the surgeon was based on years of experience or number of thyroid surgeries to their credit.

Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: Postoperative complications (hypocalcemia, recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) damage, airway obstruction, hemorrhage and mortality) were measured against type of thyroid surgery and expertise of surgeon.

Results: 833 thyroid surgeries were performed on 695 (83.43%) females and 138 (16.57%) males. 502 (60.26%) STT, 228 (27.37%) TT, 61 (7.32%) NTT, 42 (5.04%)...