Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery without Wound Drains

갑상선 및 부갑상선 수술시 배액관 삽입술에 대한 검토

Traditionally, wound drainage after thyroid or parathyroid surgery has been widely used to prevent airway obstruction due to accumulation of hematoma or seroma within the paratracheal dead space. Recently, however, the routine use of drains after thyroid or parathyroid surgery has become a matter of controversy. To determine whether the rouine use of drains after thyroid or parathyroid surgery is warranted, a prospective study on the complications after various types of thyroid or parathyroid surgery without wound drains was conducted. Three hunded sixty-six consecutive patients underwent thyroid or parathyorid surgeries by one surgeon from January through December 1994 were included in this study. Of these, only 38 patients (10.4%) required the wound drains. Indications for drainage included the patients with a large dead space(n=9) or wet operative field at the conclusion of surgery(n=11), and patients with radical neck disection(n=18). In the remaining 328 patients(89.6%), the wounds were closed without drains after thyroid lobectomy and isthmusectomy(n=226), bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy(n=21), total or near-total thyroidectomy(n=62), isthmusectomy(n=9) and parathyroid surgery(n=l0). Histologic findings revealed benign tumors in 214(65.2%), carcinoma in 89(27.1%), Graves' disease in 15(4.7%), hyperparathyroidism in 7(2.1%) and parathyroid cyst in 3(0.9%). Among the 328 patients without drain used, wound related complications were seen in only 15 patients(4.6%); 12 patients with seroma and 3 patients with hematoma. All but one complications could be controlled by two or three aspirations, and the remaining one patient required re-exploration. There were no instances of laryngeal nerve palsy or wound infection. The mean length of hospital stay after surgery was 2.8 days with a range of 1 to 11 days. These results support the routine use of drains is not warranted in most thyroid or parathyroid surgeries.