Echocardiographic Evaluation of Patients with Goiter in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Goiter is endemic in iodine deficient areas of the world including Nigeria. Cardiovascular disorder is a cause of morbidity in patients with thyroid diseases. These cardiovascular disorders are more likely to be found in patients with hypothyroid or hyperthyroid goiter. Large euthyroid goiter can potentially compromise respiration with potentials for secondary cardiac changes. Despite these, echocardiography is not a routine assessment of these patients. This study set out to determine the baseline cardiac function in a cohort of patients with endemic goiter using echocardiography. Materials and Methods: A comparative study of One hundred goiter patients presenting consecutively at the out-patient clinic of a tertiary hospital and 50 age and gender matched healthy non-goitrous control subjects. They all had thyroid function tests, cardiovascular evaluation and echocardiography done. Results: The mean ages of the goiter and the control groups were 46.92 + 13.85 and 46.58 + 11.62 years respectively (P=0.8510). The goiter population comprised 12 males and 88 females while the control group had 6 males and 44 females. 47% of the goiter subjects were hyperthyroid, while 44% and 9% were euthyroid and hypothyroid respectively. All the control subjects were euthyroid. Systolic and diastolic dysfunction were seen in 18% and 24% of the goiter group respectively, compared to 2% and 5% of the control group (P<0.0001). Hyperthyroid and hypothyroid subgroups had higher rates of both systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Systolic dysfunction was seen in 6.4%, 4.5% and 100% of the hyperthyroid, euthyroid and hypothyroid subgroups respectively while diastolic dysfunction was seen in 23.4%, 9.2 and 100% of the subgroups. Prevalence of systolic and diastolic dysfunction in the euthyroid and control subjects were 4.5% vs 2% (P=0.1228) and 9.2% vs 5% (P=0.2018). Conclusion: This study concluded that cardiac dysfunction is common in both hypothyroid and hyperthyroid goiter population while the prevalence of cardiac dysfunction in the euthyroid population is not influenced by the presence of goiter. This may suggest that routine echocardiography is unnecessary in patient with euthyroid goiter

Early experience with ligasure thyroidectomy in a Nigeria Teaching Hospital

Background: The principles of safe and efficient thyroid surgery had been established and the technique has remained the same for over the century without any major significant changes. The introductions of electrosurgical devices constitute a major shift in the technique of thyroid surgery. Objective: We present our early experience with the use of LIGASURE vessel sealing system for the procedure of thyroidectomy. Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study comparing outcome of LigaSure thyroidectomy in a prospective nonrandomized cohort with another retrospective cohort of preintervention clamp-and-tie thyroidectomy. Results: A total of 30 patients with a clinical diagnosis of goiter were recruited into the study. There were two males and 28 females with a mean age of 42.6 years. Diagnosis was simple multinodular goiter 24 (80%), controlled toxic nodular goiter 3 (10%), grave disease 1 (3.3%), and multinodular goiter with retrosternal extension 2 (6.7%). The mean thyroid weight was 121.0 g. The mean duration of surgery was 59 min compared to 128 min for traditional technique (P < 0.01). The mean blood loss of 116 ml was significantly less than 328 ml following the traditional technique (P < 0.01). Mean duration of hospital stay was 1.9 days, compared to 3.55 days in the traditional technique group (P = 0.02). Troubling postoperative complications of change in voice quality occurred in only one patient (3.3%). Conclusion: LigaSure thyroidectomy was found to be easier and faster to carry out with no learning curve and easy to learn and adapt

Pediatric adenotonsillectomy in a low resource setting: Lessons and implications

Objectives: To examine the practices related paediatric adenotonsillectomy in our setting especially in relation to blood request and transfusion, routine investigations, post-operative analgesic practice and complications. Methods: We reviewed the record of paediatric patients who had adenotonsillectomy in our facility over a 5-year period to obtain relevant information to our study. Results: There were 33 males and 19 females with mean age of 3.27 ± 2.76 years. Sinus tachycardia was found in 11(21.2 %) of the subjects and T wave anomaly in 1(1.9%) of the subject. Thirty-five (67.3%) patient had adenotonsillectomy, 13(25.0 %) adenoidectomy only and 4(7.7%) tonsillectomy only. Majority of the patients (24, 46.2%) were classified as ASA physical status I. Pre-operative blood request rate was high (49, 94.3%) though the transfusion rate was 1.9 % (1 patient). Acetaminophen combined with other analgesics was used for post-operative analgesia for most of the patients. There was significant weight gain post-operatively among patient Conclusions: Cold steel adenotonsillectomy is safe and effective in our environment. We believe that there is no justification for routine pre-operative blood request as a preconditions for surgery. We also like to suggest that post-operative pain management be streamlined taking into consideration the available analgesics in our setting