Mohan Kumar Mili1 , Shilpi Gupta2 , Monikuntal Sarma3
BACKGROUND With increase in geriatric population, there is need to establish guidelines and protocols by clinicians to standardize care for these patients. There is an elevated risk of perioperative morbidity among elderly patients undergoing surgical procedures. METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis on our database of elderly (aged over 60 years) patients undergoing thyroidectomy for benign as well as malignant lesions in a tertiary care hospital in North East India with the aim to find out the incidence of thyroid disease, preoperative diagnosis, management and prognosis in elderly patients. RESULTS A total of fifty four cases was included in the study, out of which forty six were operated and eight had palliative treatment. No major complication was noticed. CONCLUSIONS Our experience suggests that thyroidectomy in the geriatric population can be performed safely, without any increased risk of complications. With close monitoring of the comorbidities and a structured planning with a careful preoperative evaluation and a risk factor stratification, the hazards of surgical procedures could be contained. While a delay in performing surgical procedure in a suspicious thyroid can expose the patients to a number of complications like development of subclinical- or overt-hyperthyroidism or even metastasis in cases of a malignant thyroid.
