History and Training
Endocrine surgery is in general more recently developed than other fields of surgery.
Endocrine surgery has developed as a sub-specialty surgical category because of the technical nature of these operations and the associated risks of operating in the neck. Beginning in 1978, specialty training became available in the United Kingdom and later in the USA to help train surgeons within this highly specialized field. It is well established that complications are much less common if performed by surgeons who do at least 100 thyroid operations per year.In the United Kingdom most thyroid surgery is performed by surgeons doing less than 20 thyroid operations per year. This results in a high risk of permanent voice change (up to 2%) and a similar risk of parathyroid damage. In expert hands these risks should be nearer 0.5%.Permanent damage to both voice box nerves is an extreme rarity and needs in most cases a permanent tracheotomy.
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