Routine drainage in thyroid surgery: is this practice obsolete? - abstract

ABSTRACT

Thyroid surgery without drainage is thought by many surgeons to be a practice with potentially catastrophic consequences. This thinking which evolved from the late nineteenth century view of absolute prescription of thyroidectomy because of bleeding has been questioned in recent papers. Our experience at surgery also led us to doubt the necessity of routine drainage, and so, since 1976, we practised non-drainage prospectively in 248 consecutive thyroidectomies. Subtotal lobectomy was done in 56 cases, unilateral lobectomy in 115 and bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy in 77 cases. This is the largest such series reported to date. In only one case was drainage considered necessary, and the only complication attributable to non-drainage was minor subcutaneous fluid collection (2 cases). In thyroid surgery, following meticulous haemotasis, routine drainage is not necessary (AU)