Combined Cardiac Surgery and Total Thyroidectomy: Our Experience and Review of the Literature

Background: The prevalence of thyroid disease in patients with cardiac disease can be as high as 11.2%. Combined thyroid and cardiovascular surgery has rarely been reported. Methods: Ten patients (6 female, 4 male, age range 51-73 years) had total thyroidectomy and cardiac surgery in the same procedure in our surgical department. Six patients had coronary artery disease; four patients had valvulopathy. The thyroid goiter was retrosternal in 6 patients. Results: Mean stay in the intensive care unit was 46.4 hours; the postoperative course was complicated by transient right laryngeal nerve palsy in one case and by transient hypocalcemia in the patients in whom a parathyroid autotransplantation was performed (n = 3). There was one case of hemodynamic compromise needing vasoactive drug support; the mean hospital stay was 8.4 days. Conclusions: Our experience and our review of the literature suggest that a single-stage procedure is safe and feasible and must be preferred to different operations as it has an acceptable peri-operative and anesthesiological risk.