Missed thyroid gland after total thyroidectomy
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Ateş Özyiğin; Serkan Teksoz; Sangar M Faroq Abdulrahman; Suleyman Demiryas; Yusuf Bukey; Sina Ferahman
- Source
- Subject
- Total thyroidectomy
medicine.medical_specialty
endocrine system
medicine.diagnostic_test
endocrine system diseases
business.industry
Substernal goiter
Thyroid
Case Report
030230 surgery
Scintigraphy
Tracheal deviation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
medicine.anatomical_structure
Thyroid-stimulating hormone
Concomitant
medicine
030211 gastroenterology & hepatology
Radiology
business
Pathological
- Language
- English
Missed gland is an extremely rare condition. It is a mediastinal thyroid mass found after total thyroidectomy. We report a case of missed gland. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy due to multinodular goiter and thyroid stimulating hormone levels did not increase after surgery. Pathological tests revealed a micropapillary carcinoma. Thyroid ultrasonography and scintigraphy scan revealed mediastinal thyroid mass. The patient underwent redo surgery without sternotomy and there was no morbidity after the second surgical procedure. Most missed thyroid gland cases are due to incomplete removal of plunging thyroid goiter during total thyroidectomy. They also can be attributed to a concomitant, unrecognized mediastinal goiter, which is not connected to the thyroid gland with vessels or a thin fibrous band. It should be noted that absence of signs like mediastinal mass or tracheal deviation in preoperative chest X-ray does not exclude substernal goiter. The presence of a missed thyroid gland should be kept in mind when postoperative thyroid stimulating hormone levels remain unchanged.