Transposition of the lingual thyroid

Abstract

Lingual thyroid represents the only functioning thyroid tissue in the body in 70-80% of the cases, surgical ablation of which will produce hypothyroidism. Transposition of the lingual ectopic thyroid with its vasculary supply intact as a pedicle graft is presented. This seems to be the most locigal approach in preserving the viability and function of these ectopic tissues.

Ectopic Lingual Thyroid as Unusual Cause of Severe Dysphagia

“…When the lingual thyroid is associated with normally located functioning thyroid tissue, total excision is curative; otherwise, transplantation of the excised ectopic thyroid tissue is necessary to avoid hypothyroidism and hypertrophy of the remaining lingual thyroid. Transplantation of thyroid tissue has been described in the literature [28,29]. The tissue is moved by free graft into the anterior rectus sheath or under the strap muscles [27] or by transposition into a submandibular site.…”

Transposition of the lingual thyroid: A new alternative technique

“…Partial resection or hemilingual thyroidectomy at the lateral side may be attempted if the lingual thyroid is too large to be transferred. 11 The procedure is very simple and causes less swelling to the upper aerodigestive tract as a result of the smaller area of dissection, which therefore obviates the need of tracheostomy and nasogastric feeding postoperatively. The patient can make a fast and uneventful recovery.…”

“…Many tech-niques of lingual thyroid transposition have been described elsewhere. [11][12][13] However, our technique of transposing the lingual thyroid from the base of the tongue to the lateral neck is relatively safe, simple, reproducible, and effective. Since the newly located thyroid is relatively superficial in the lateral upper neck, it is easy to evaluate postoperatively and to repeat surgery if any abnormalities subsequently develop, especially in cases with malignant transformation.…”

Lingual Thyroid

“…Surgi cal intervention is indicated when the symp tomatic lingual thyroid mass does not re spond to suppressive doses of thyroid hor mone, in the presence of hemorrhage or ulceration, and when malignancy is sus pected. Autotransplantation [19,22] may be considered in euthyroid patients without or thotopic thyroid tissue [6,12,20], No ther apy is indicated if the patient is euthyroid and without functional impairment. Periodic evaluation of the thyroid function and 99mTc scintiscan are mandatory.…”

“…In 70-80% of the cases reported, the lin gual thyroid appeared to be the only func tioning thyroid tissue [5,12]. Hypothyroid ism has been reported to occur in 14.5-33% of patients with lingual thyroid, while hyperthyroidism was rarely associated with this disorder [5,11].…”