Abstract
Objective: Determine demographics and cost analysis for outpatients undergoing thyroid surgery at hospitals belonging to the University Health System Consortium (UHC).
Method: The University Health System Consortium (UHC), Oak Brook, Illinois, was formed in 1984 and consists of 107 academic medical centers and 232 of their affiliated hospitals. This represents 90% of non-profit academic medical centers in the United States (www.uhc.edu). Data were compiled from discharge summaries into a secure data base.
Results: There were 28,648 patients who had outpatient thyroid surgery. A total of 19,487 patients had thyroid surgery for benign disease. A total of 8,909 patients had surgery for thyroid cancer. A total of 36.2% of surgeries were hemithyroidectomy and 44.5% were totals. A total of 1,333 of the thyroid cancer patients had a simultaneous neck dissection (5%). A total of 252 patients had neck dissection for thyroid cancer as a separate procedure. The average age was 48.7 (14.7) years and 71.8% of patients were female.
Conclusion: Thyroid surgery is increasingly being done outpatient. Improved surgical technique, anesthesia technique, hemostatic methods, and calcium management make this possible. This becomes a cost-effective way to manage both benign and malignant thyroid diseases. This is the largest series reporting outpatient thyroid surgery.
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