Thyroidectomy under local anaesthesia: how safe?

Abstract

In order to compliment the inadequate health facilities in the rural areas in Nigeria, nongovernmental organisations provide adhoc outreach health camps that offer treatment in various medical specialties including surgery. Rural outreach health camps. To evaluate the safety of thyroidectomy under local anaesthesia at rural outreach setting with inadequate facilities for general anaesthesia. This was a prospective descriptive study of 33 consecutive cases of thyroidectomy performed using field block with 1% lignocaine and adrenaline 1: 200,000 dilution during two free medical outreaches that held at Jos,Nigeria inMarch andOctober 2005 respectively, lasting twoweeks each. : A total of 33 primary thyroid operations were performed consisting of 30 subtotal thyroidectomies (91%), 2 lobectomies (6%) and one total thyroidectomy (3%), The patientswere aged between 23 and 62 years with a mean age of 45.8years. There were 3males and 30 females with a male: female ratio of 1:10. There was no mortality butmorbidity was 2/33 (6%) Two complications were recorded in 2 patients and were superficial surgical site infection (3%) and reactionary haemorrhage (3%). We conclude that thyroidectomy under local anaesthesia is a safe procedure in experienced hands at rural settingswith inadequate facilities for general anaesthesia.

Keywords: Thyroidectomy; Local anaesthesia; Safety;Rural outreach;Nigeria

Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (1) 2008: pp.37-40