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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffA thyroidectomy may be recommended for conditions such as:
- Thyroid cancer. Cancer is the most common reason for thyroidectomy. If you have thyroid cancer, removing most, if not all, of your thyroid will likely be a treatment option.
- Noncancerous enlargement of the thyroid (goiter). Removing all or part of your thyroid gland is an option if you have a large goiter that is uncomfortable or causes difficulty breathing or swallowing, or in some cases, if the goiter is causing hyperthyroidism.
- Overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism). Hyperthyroidism is a condition in which your thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxine. If you have problems with anti-thyroid drugs and don't want radioactive iodine therapy, thyroidectomy may be an option.
References
- Lal G, et al. Thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal. In: Brunicardi FC, et al. Schwartz's Principles of Surgery. 8th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=817576. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Thyroid surgery. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/ThyroidSurgery.pdf. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Busaidy NL, et al. Endocrine malignancies. In: Kantarjian HM, et al. MD Anderson Manual of Medical Oncology. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2797737. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Tuttle RM. Surgical treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Lal G, et al. Endocrine surgery. In: Gardner DG, et al. Greenspan's Basic and Clinical Endocrinology. 8th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2007. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2632048. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Scheuller MC, et al. Malignant thyroid neoplasms. In: Lalwani AK. Current Diagnosis & Treatment in Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2829354. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- Graves' disease. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://www.endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/graves/. Accessed May 13, 2009.
- ATA hypothyroidism booklet. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hypothyroidism%20_web_booklet.pdfAccessed May 20, 2009.
