In some thyroid diseases, unilateral removal of the thyroid gland will actually be sufficient. The drawbacks and advantages of unilateral thyroidectomy surgery should be explained to the patient by his doctor. It is not right to remove an entire working organ unnecessarily. Patients for whom one-sided surgery would be sufficient would not needlessly undertake the complications of bilateral removal of the thyroid gland, and they would not need to use medication for life or would use a smaller dose. If the other side is the thyroid gland, it is monitored. When a problem arises, it is decided what to do. If we have to worry about whether a problem will develop on the other side that has not been removed, shouldn't we have our other healthy organs removed?
Whether we look at it from the patient or the surgeon's perspective, we need to undergo an unnecessarily extensive surgery just to relieve our concerns. We should know that when the decision is made, the possibility of complications related to the surgery increases. The only risk in a unilateral thyroid surgery is hoarseness. In bilateral thyroid surgery, there will be additional risks of having to use calcium medication due to calcium deficiency or having a perforated pipe inserted into the air pipe due to the patient's inability to breathe spontaneously.
Based on this sensitivity, only one In cases of bilateral thyroid diseases, the surgeon may send the unilateral thyroid gland, which he removed during surgery, if necessary, to the pathology laboratory for frozen section examination. Because if cancer is detected on the side sent for examination, the strategy of the surgery may change; Maybe the other healthy side will need to be removed, or maybe neck lymph node removal surgery will be required. The surgeon should inform the patient about the extent of the surgery he will perform during the surgery planning phase and decide together with the patient on the type of surgery.
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