Thyroidectomy Under Local Anaesthesia: How Safe?

Abstract

Background: In order to compliment the inadequate health facilities in the rural areas in Nigeria,non governmental organizations provide adhoc outreach health camps that offer treatment in various medical specialties including surgery. Setting: Rural outreach health camps. Objective: To evaluate the safety of thyroidectomy under local anaesthetia at tural outreach setting with inadequate facilities for general anaesthesia. Patients and Methods: This was a prospective descriptive study of 33 consecutive cases of thyroidectomy performed using field block with 1% lignocaine and adrenaline 1:200,000 dilution during two free medical outreaches that held at Jos,Nigeria in March and October 2005 respectively,lasting two weeks each. Results; A total of 33 primary thyroid operations were performed consisting of 30 subtotal thyroidectomies (91%),2 lobectomies (6%) and one thyroidectomy (3%), The patients were aged between 23 and 62 years with a mean age of 45.8 years. There were 3 males and 30 females with a male: female ratio of 1:10. There was no mortality but morbidity was 2/33 (6%) Two complications were recorded in 2 patients and were superficial surgical site infection (3%) and reactionary haemorrhage (3%). Conclusion: We conclude that thyroidectomy under local anaesthesia is a safe procedure in experienced hands at rural settings with inadequate facilities for general anaesthesia.