Effects after thyroid nodule removal
Thyroid surgery often leads to postoperative bleeding as a common complication. Bleeding may compress the trachea, causing difficulty in breathing. If a patient exhibits severe breathing difficulties along with significant bleeding from the drainage tube post-surgery, emergency hemostasis should be performed. Secondly, tracheomalacia. Long-term compression from the mass softens the tracheal wall, leading to a collapse due to inadequate support from surrounding tissues. Thus, after removing thyroid nodules, the thyroid and adjacent tissues fail to support the softened trachea, resulting in breathing difficulties. Thirdly, pharyngeal edema. During surgery, inflammatory stimulation can cause edema in the surrounding tissues, which may lead to difficulty in breathing. Therefore, after ruling out possibilities of postoperative bleeding, tracheomalacia, or vocal cord paralysis, pharyngeal edema should be considered. Nebulization therapy can be administered. Fourthly, vocal cord paralysis is common due to accidental damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve during surgery, causing hoarseness. Generally, patients may gradually recover over three to six months, and symptoms can improve. The fifth effect is damage to the parathyroid glands. If the parathyroid glands are damaged, it may lead to abnormal blood calcium levels and symptoms of hypocalcemia, such as tetany and spasms. Most cases are due to vascular damage to the parathyroid glands resulting in temporary hypofunction, which often recovers shortly. The sixth possible outcome is a thyroid storm. Some patients with hyperthyroidism may experience a sudden release of large amounts of thyroid hormone into the bloodstream post-surgery, causing high fever, irregular heart rate, restlessness, nausea, vomiting, coma, and even death. The seventh effect is that removal of the thyroid gland leads to a deficiency in thyroid hormones, resulting in symptoms of hypothyroidism.