Treatment Outcomes of 22 Patients with Substernal Goiter

The substernal goiter is a condition in which more than 50% of thyroid gland extended to the mediastinum. In this study the clinical symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and the surgical complications in 22 patients were assessed. In this cross-sectional study the recorded files of all patients who went under thyroidectomy operation in Shahid Beheshti and Yahyanejad hospitals in recent 15 years (from 1994 to 2009) were assessed. Twenty six patients had substernal thyroid and their age, sex, pathology, symptoms, method of thyroidectomy, the postoperation complications, mortality and type of incision were evaluated. Four files from 26 files were excluded from study because of information deficits. Twenty two patients were included in the study. 77.3 of them (17 cases) were female. Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy was seen in one patient. The most common symptom in 72.7% of patients (16 cases) was dyspnea. Pathology reports in 9 % of patients (2 cases) showed malignancy and in 91% (20 cases) were benign. All operations were done with cervical incision. According to the results of this study, the substernal goiter is often curable and the operation complications rarely happen.