ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Safely Performing Thyroid Procedures As Day Surgery
Thursday 9 May, 2013
Well selected patients can safely undergo hemi-thyroid surgery as day patients, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific
Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons have been told.
Dr Jacques Marnewick, who was a trainee endocrine surgeon at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, said ambulatory thyroid
surgery, in which the patient is discharged on the day of surgery without overnight stay, is not widely practised in
Australasia but is practised in many large international institutions, particularly in Europe and America.
“We decided therefore to report on our early experience with ambulatory hemi-thyroid procedures at a New Zealand
tertiary hospital,” he said. “This involved a retrospective review of prospectively collected data on all partial and
hemi-thyroidectomy patients between 1 November 2009 and 31 December 2012, who were operated on by a single, high volume
endocrine surgeon.” Strict inclusion and discharge criteria were required to ensure appropriate patient selection and
safe discharge after surgery.
“Of 82 partial/hemi-thyroidectomy patients over this time period, 58 were considered suitable for discharge as
ambulatory surgical patients. Thirty-five of these were discharged as same day procedures. A further 23 patients
remained overnight due only to the distance of their residence from a 24 hour medical facility but otherwise met
criteria for same day discharge. The remaining 24 were considered unsuitable for ambulatory surgery, however 22 were
discharged from hospital within 24 hours from the time of admission. Two patients required a hospital stay longer than
one night, which was expected in both cases.
“Of all these patients, there was only one re-presentation of surgical complication, with an infected seroma,” Dr
Marnewick said.
“Our early experience suggests that in carefully selected patients, ambulatory partial and hemi-thyroid surgery can be
safely achieved and is feasible within an Australasian tertiary hospital setting.”
Approximately 1200 surgeons from New Zealand, Australia and around the world are attending the ASC, which runs from 6 to
10 May and is being held at Auckland’s Skycity/Crowne Plaza Convention Centre.
ENDS