2Istanbul University- Cerrahpasa, Cerrahpasa School of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Istanbul, TURKEY DOI : 10.31086/tjgeri.2020.152 Introduction: Recently, patients are discharged home between 6 to 24 hours after thyroidectomy. The safety of this method in geriatric patients is not clear. Our aim is to investigate the effect of preoperative demographic characteristics on respiratory and cardiovascular complications after total thyroidectomy in geriatric patients who are over 65 years.
Materials and Method: After obtaining local ethical committee approval, the perioperative data of geriatric patients who had total thyroidectomy between January 2016 and December 2018 were evaluated. Patients" age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, preoperative systemic disease or medical comorbidities such as thyroid hormone dysfunction and electrolyte imbalance, difficult airway, operation time, preoperative vocal cord paralysis and thyroid malignancy were evaluated. Patients with respiratory or cardiovascular complications 30 days after surgery were evaluated about the effect of demographic data by using one ?way ANOVA test.
Results: Of the 191 patients in this retrospective analysis, 10 of the patients suffered from respiratory complications and 13 suffered cardiovascular complications. Patients who were observed respiratory complications had a higher body mass index compared to others (p=0.043). Patients with cardiovascular complications had an older age and higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure prior to surgery (p=0.013, p<0.01, p=0.032, respectively). Systemic diseases and medical comorbidities were not associated with postoperative complications.
Conclusions: Systemic diseases and medical comorbidities may not increase postoperative complication risk in geriatric patients undergoing outpatient total thyroidectomy. Postoperative complications in these patients may be related to respiratory or cardiovascular risk factors prior to surgery.
Keywords : Aged; Surgery; Comorbidity; Thyroidectomy