Thyroid Surgery

Thyroid surgery removes part or all of the thyroid, the butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the neck that sets the pace of the body's metabolism. It is performed for nodules that may be cancerous, for a goitre that has grown large enough to press on the windpipe or swallowing tube, for an overactive gland that has not settled with medicine or radioiodine, and for confirmed thyroid cancer. The same surgical field also contains the four parathyroid glands, which control calcium, so parathyroid operations are carried out by the same specialists. Modern thyroid surgery is precise work performed close to the nerves that move the vocal cords, and it is monitored, planned and increasingly performed through smaller or hidden incisions.