Quality of life is not affected by thyroid surgery in nontoxic benign goitre in long‐term surveillance—A prospective observational study

Abstract

Objective: Quality of life (QoL) has so far seldom been taken into account by default in decision-making for surgical indication in thyroid surgery. Therefore, we compared pre-and postoperative QoL of patients using the EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D) questionnaire. The influence of certain socio-economic factors on QoL as a second end-point was considered.Design: Prospective cohort study.Patients: About 153 patients with euthyroid symptomatic benign goitre after hemiand total thyroidectomy (follow-up 83.6%) have been included. Measurements:The EQ-5D questionnaire was used prior to and 1 year after surgery.In addition, a questionnaire for assessment of socio-economic status was collected. Results: For n = 90 (n = 67 female, n = 23 male), total thyroidectomy (TT) and, for n = 63 (n = 45 female, n = 18 male), hemithyroidectomy (HT) were performed. None permanent dysfunction of the vocal cord was recorded. Transient symptomatic hypocalcaemia was detected in 9% of the thyroidectomy group (8/90 patients). At follow-up, 86% of patients showed either no change or improved QoL. About 14% of patients complained of deteriorated QoL, regardless of the extent of surgery. Socioeconomic factors did not influence postoperative QoL. Conclusions:Results indicate that in pre-operative consultation of patients with benign goitre, the improvement of QoL should be taken into account for decision-making in cases of ambiguous surgical indication. Contrary to current discussions that too much thyroid surgery is performed in Germany, we can recommend presenting surgery as an equivalent option to watchful waiting as QoL is at least preserved or improved. The extension of the resection should, however, be decided individually. K E Y W O R D SEQ-5D, health-related quality of life, hemithyroidectomy, patient-reported outcome, PRO, QoL, total thyroidectomy

Validity and reliability of the German version of the shortened thyroid-specific quality of life questionnaire (ThyPRO-39de)

“…The EQ 5D-5L is well validated generic questionnaire to determine the general QoL. Today, it is available in over 130 languages, and in Germany, it has even been used as an evaluation instrument in thyroid diseases ( 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ). However, we hypothesize that it might be too generic to really capture thyroid-related QoL.…”

Quality of life in obese patients after thyroidectomy for goiter

“…It is generally accepted that quality of life is negatively influenced by thyroid dysfunction (29) . Tabriz et al (2020) found that 86% of patients had no change or improved quality of life after hemithyroidectomy or total thyroidectomy for symptomatic benign goiter (30). The results of the ThyPRO survey in our study showed that obese subjects had significantly worse scores across all 12 domains preoperatively, with normalizing post-operatively.…”

“…Their study showed the emotional aspect was influenced by thyroid disease. Any intervention, including operation, RAI, or cyst aspiration with ethanol sclerotherapy showed a positive impact in quality of life and anxiety in Tabriz' patients with thyroid disease (30).…”

“…Our study shows a higher incidence of thyroid disease in females, which is consistent with several other studies. Women are also more likely to report problems in quality of life than men (30). Mishra et al (in 2013) found that female gender showed significantly better outcomes in quality of life domains after thyroid surgery.…”

Quality of Life in Patients with Benign Non‐Toxic Goiter After Surgical Intervention: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…From these, 35 studies did not meet the inclusion criteria. Eleven studies were excluded because of different outcomes [7,15,19,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], nine studies were excluded because of a different population [11,18,20,[40][41][42][43][44][45], three studies evaluated different time points [13,14,46], and one evaluated a different intervention [47]. The remaining eleven studies were either missing the full text, were duplicates, or were written in another language.…”