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Nov. 16th, 2004 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hel_anaOdd.
The thyroid is an endocrine gland just under the Adam's apple that controls the body's metabolic rate. When thyroid disease requires surgery to remove part or all of the gland, the result can be a prominent scar of 2 inches — often more — across the front of the throat.
It makes some patients self-conscious.
Because 80 percent of his patients are women, many of them young, Dr. Richard E. Goldstein, an endocrine surgeon in Louisville, was interested in learning a technique that results in a much smaller scar.
So in 2002 Goldstein worked with a team of surgeons in Italy who did an operation that leaves only a ½- to ¾-inch scar.
The operation that leaves the larger scar is an open thyroidectomy. The newer operation is called minimally invasive, video-assisted thyroidectomy.
The operation is only indicated for nodules less than 30mm at the largest part, and for thyroids with a smaller volume. I found a fascinating slideshow, which gave me an excellent view into what it must have looked like when I had my surgery.
The article also mentions a technique used in Japan that removes the thyroid through an incision in the armpit. That to me seems a bit invasive.
The thyroid is an endocrine gland just under the Adam's apple that controls the body's metabolic rate. When thyroid disease requires surgery to remove part or all of the gland, the result can be a prominent scar of 2 inches — often more — across the front of the throat.
It makes some patients self-conscious.
Because 80 percent of his patients are women, many of them young, Dr. Richard E. Goldstein, an endocrine surgeon in Louisville, was interested in learning a technique that results in a much smaller scar.
So in 2002 Goldstein worked with a team of surgeons in Italy who did an operation that leaves only a ½- to ¾-inch scar.
The operation that leaves the larger scar is an open thyroidectomy. The newer operation is called minimally invasive, video-assisted thyroidectomy.
The operation is only indicated for nodules less than 30mm at the largest part, and for thyroids with a smaller volume. I found a fascinating slideshow, which gave me an excellent view into what it must have looked like when I had my surgery.
The article also mentions a technique used in Japan that removes the thyroid through an incision in the armpit. That to me seems a bit invasive.
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Date: 2004-11-16 12:30 pm (UTC)My surgeon was able to use a natural crease in my neck (he inked it before the surgery), so I think my scar is much less noticeable than the one in the article. Even when I was treated at Sloan 3 months post surgery the nurses there were impressed.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-16 12:36 pm (UTC)Plus, I have no neck creases yet, and it's lopsided, because he had to extend it further on the left (to get the lymph nodes) than on the right.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-16 01:34 pm (UTC)I think mine is slightly lopsided also - I did lose 2 lymph nodes (one was on the thyroid itself).
But we are healthy now!
I wonder if a dermatologist can recommend anything for the scar?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-16 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-16 07:06 pm (UTC)Somehow I picture that procedure similar to the one I use when I try to unlock my car with a wire hangar. I wonder if I would be good at the surgery too?