The result of surgical treatment of 99 cases of surgical thyroid diseases operated during the 10-year period from April 1958 to March 1968 at the Department of General Surgery, Pusan National University Hospital was presented. The thyroid cancers were 29 cases (29.3%), and benign pathology including thyroid adenomas, nodular goiters, Graves diseases, diffuse colloid goiters, and Hashimotos diseases were 70 cases (70.7%) among the surgical thyroid diseases with preponderence of nodular goiter comprising about 44% of all benign pathology.
Female was more frequently affected by both thyroid cancer and benign pathology than male with the ratio fo 1.9:1 and 9:1. Cancer was found more commonly after 50 years of age and the peak age incidence of benign diseases was between 20-29 years with 31.4% of patients falling in this range.
The most frequent complaints of thyroid cancer were as follows: Palpable tumors: 93.1%, toxic symptoms: 27.6%, headache: 24.1%. High incidence of toxic symptoms and headache was evident in our series, and its causes were not clear.
The important postoperative complications of thyroid diseases in our study were as follow: Transient unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis: 9 cases (4 cases in cancer and 5 cases in benign diseases), transient parathyoid tetany:1 case (in cancer), and myxedema:1 case (in benign diseases).
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