Saturday 3 December 2011

Thyroid Cysts

Thyroid cysts are a common cause of a lump in the thyroid gland

They usually arise quite quickly and are a cause of a suddenly noticed and often slightly painful lump in the neck

Thyroid cysts are diagnosed by being referred to a specialist thyroid clinic where a needle biopsy will be done there and then - removing the fluid means the cysts is gone!

Once the fluid is removed your consultant will re-examine the neck and confirm that all the lump has gone as well - this confirms the diagnosis of a cyst.  An ultrasound scan is NOT required and usually just acts as a delaying scan adding absolutely nothing to the diagnosis.

As a matter of routine the fluid should be sent off for cytological assessment to check there are no cancerous cells.

Management of the cyst depends on how it behaves:

1. The cyst goes away and stays away - a check exam in 1 month to confirm this and then you should be discharged from further review.

2. If it recurs a further needle aspiration of the fluid may well cure it.

3. If it recurs again I now generally get an ultrasound drainage done to make 100% certain all the fluid is removed

4. If the cyst keeps on recurring this is an indication for surgery - usually a thyroid lobectomy (removing half the thyroid containing the cyst)

The reason for operating on recurrent cysts is that many of these have a growth in the wall producing fluid hence why it keeps coming back.  Some of these growths are thyroid cancers - hence the concern about managing them correctly.

Mr McLaren offers this service in both the NHS and private sectors and more details are available on the websites below


Bucksendocrine - thyroid surgery by a UK specialist surgeon

Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery Website

Video of Mr McLaren undertaking a thyroid operation

Thursday 6 October 2011

Modern Thyroid Surgery - The Harmonic Scalpel

Thyroid surgery has evolved and one of the biggest advances has been the introduction of the Harmonic Scalpel (Ethicon Endosurgery, Johnson & Johnson).

The Harmonic Scalpel uses ultracision technology originally developed in the United States to assist gynaecological surgery.

The Harmonic Scalpel device utilises a piezo-electric crystal to turn electricity into motion at the tip of the active blade which vibrates at 55,000 Hz.  This rapid motion causes tissue between the blades - including blood vessels to be sealed and then divided in a few seconds.

The advantages of this technology are compared to standard techniques of electric cautery devices (diathermy) and are:

1. Reduced bleeding
2. Less heat in the tissues - potentially heat can be damaging to surrounding structures
3. Avoidance of electricity passing through the patient


As a result of these advantages as a thyroid surgeon I find:

1. Less bleeding means greater vison of delicate structures in the neck
2. Easier to protect the recurrent laryngeal nerve
3. Easier to preserve the parathyroid glands
4. Much faster as I can divide structures very rapidly


All of this hopefully translates into a better outcome for a patient undergoing thyroid surgery.  There are a number of studies now available including some randomised controlled trials comparing thryoid surgery with and without use of the Harmonic Scalpel which clear show these benefits.

If you would like to watch a video of me undertaking thyroid surgery with the Harmonic Focus device please click on the link below.

Mr Mclaren performing thyroid surgery with Harmonic Focus device


Thyroid and Minimal Access Thyroid Surgery

Wednesday 31 August 2011

FHH - Familial Hypocalciuric Hypercalcaemia

FHH

This is an interesting topic for anyone with parathyroid disease.

The interest in FHH comes from the fact that it is one of the causes of an elevated calcium level so should be considered by your doctor as part of the differential diagnosis.

The important point about it is that the parathyroid glands are normal... The elevated calcium of FHH does not for reasons that are unclear cause symptoms in the way that a similar level from parathyroid disease would.  There is no cure for FHH and the elevated calcium is permanent and not in any way a problem.

If the diagnosis of FHH is missed and you end up having surgery nothing abnormal will found the surgery will achieve precisely nothing.

FHH is excluded by checking a 24 hour urine collection and measuring the amount of calcium excreted in the urine.  This is a very important test.

FHH patients have a low level of urine calcium excretion - usually <100mg per 24 hours.

Other hints that this condition is present are:

1. Only mild elevation of calcium which has been stable over time
2. Young age
3. Patients with a family history of 'parathyroid disease'


Nowadays if there is doubt there is a genetic test to exclude FHH however this takes a long time to get done and in my view is generally not necessary.




www.bucksendocrine.com - Parathyroid and minimal access surgery by a UK specialist surgeon

Facebook Discussion Page on Parathyroid Disease

Sunday 7 August 2011

Thyroid Operations - How many should a surgeon undertake per year?

There has long been a debate in the medical community about how many operations a surgeon should do each year.

Thyroid surgery is rapidly becoming a specialist operation - this is a good thing as data from the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid surgeons has clearly demonstrated that outcomes are better from surgeons undertaking greater numbers of thyroid operations.

In particular - length of stay in hospital and risk of needing calcium tablets after surgery are both reduced.

The British Association held a landmark vote last year which said that surgeons should perform more than 25 thyroid operations a year in order to maintain skills and be considered for revalidation (relicensing) in the future.

There are however considerable numbers of surgeons in the UK who are not members of the Association and undertake few operations.

Your surgeon should be able to tell you:

1. How many operations they perform a year on thyroids

2. Figures relating to risk of hypocalcaemia post thyroidectomy (the best will be around 5-10%)

3. Risk of injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve in their hands

4. Average length of stay and number of daycase operations they perform


Daycase surgery is a good marker in my view as if a patient is fit, alert, pain free and keen to leave the same day it is a good indicator of a successful operation. If surgeons are unable to achieve discharge on the same day you should question why not.

www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk

www.bucksendocrine.com

Thursday 4 August 2011

Thyroid Nodules

Thyroid nodules (lumps) are very common.

Approximately 50% of people will have a thyroid lump if the thyroid is scanned with an ultrasound machine

In the UK the only lumps that need to be assessed are:

1. Visible thyroid swellings
2. Palpable thyroid swellings
3. Thyroid nodules seen on scans >1cm in size

Thyroid nodules under 1cm in size do not require any action


In my view thyroid ultrasound is over used particularly outside hospitals and I generally recommend that patients should first see someone in a one-stop thyroid clinic where biopsies are undertaken after clinical assessment.

The only way to determine whether a thyroid nodule is benign or malignant is to perform a fine needle aspiration of some cells which are then assessed under a microscope by a cytology specialist.

The Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) can either be done by the consultant in clinic - quick and straightforward using a blood test needle - or done by a radiology specialist with the aid of ultrasound.

The results from FNA are classified:

THY 1           Not enough cells to give a clear diagnosis - the test must be repeated to acheive a diagnosis

THY 2           Benign - repeated at 2-3 months as a second double check and if still benign

THY 3           Indeterminate - this should be reviewed in a thyroid multi-disciplinary team meeting

THY 4           Suspicious result which may represent a thyroid cancer

THY 5           Definite thyroid cancer according to cytology


The action following the biopsy is outlined below:

THY 1           Repeat to establish diagnosis if possible - if no clear answer needs surgery to remove

THY 2           Benign and can therefore safely leave alone or offer patient choice re excision

THY 3           Remove to acheive definite diagnosis as 20% plus are cancerous

THY 4           Repeat to acheive definite diagnosis if possible or remove with on-table frozen section

THY 5          Needs surgery - usually a total thyroidectomy


Benign nodules are still removed.  The reasons for removing these are:

1. Symptoms - often uncomfortable in the neck, difficulty swallowing, choking feeling etc

2. Cosmetic issues

3. Cancer concerns

4. Family history of thyroid cancer

5. Radiation exposure - particularly as a child (increase cancer risk)

Bucksendocrine.com - Thyroid surgery by a UK specialist surgeon


Thyroid Surgery by a UK specialist surgeon

Thursday 7 July 2011

Parathyroid Errors

I often see patients from across the UK and a number from overseas - the record distance travelled was from Sydney, Australia!

There seems to be a common theme from these patients usually resulting in delays in diagnosis and generally getting sorted out.  I thought it might be helpful to list some of the issues:

1. Calcium only slightly elevated

As a result of only tiny elevations in calcium it is often said that there is not a problem.  This is incorrect.  Calcium levels should be in the normal range - if not you need to work out why not and only then can a decision be made as to what to do.

2. PTH level normal

PTH levels should be almost zero if the calcium is high as the glands are supposed to switch off and stop making PTH.  If PTH levels are normal we term this 'inappropriately elevated' and it suggests primary parathyroid disease.

3. Mildly elevated calcium and parathyroid disease is OK

No it is not.  Calcium levels and indeed parathyroid hormone levels are completely unrelated to symptoms so some patients have terrible symptoms even with mildly elevated calcium.

Calcium levels do not make a difference to osteoporosis.  So if you have the disease you can develop osteoporosis and it makes no difference how high the calcium level is

4. Surgery is not good

This may be the case if you go to an inexperienced surgeon.  You should ask your surgeon how many cases they undertake a year.  If this number is low (<50) you may wish to consider an alternate surgeon.


www.bucksendocrine.com

www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter

Thursday 23 June 2011

Graves Disease and Thyroid Surgery

Graves disease is caused by an antibody made by the body's own immune system which attacks the eyes and thyroid gland.

In the thyroid gland the result is overproduction of thyroid hormone.

The treatment is to bring the thyroid under control with anti-thyroid medication. These drugs have significant side effects and there is a risk of agranulocytosis (loss of all white blood cells) which means patients cant fight infection and can become very ill.

Drugs usually work well and after a year if all is controlled they can be stopped and many patients will be cured. For those where the disease relapses it is essential to restart the drugs and seek a definitive treatment.

There are two definitive treatments:

1. Radioactive iodine

2. Total thyroidectomy

I wont discuss radio-iodine here but it is good for small thyroids and patients without eye problems.

Surgery should always be a total thyroidectomy. Some surgeons still offer a sub-total thyroidectomy which is a poor operation.

Sub-total surgery leaves bits of the thyroid behind and this means the tissue can regrow and the disease come back - a crazy situation when it could all be taken away at the first operation.

Surgery is a good option for many people and is offered along the lines of minimal access thyroid surgery.




www.bucksendocrine.com

www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Vitamin D and Parathyroid Disease

This topic discusses the importance of vitamin D and its link with primary parathyroid disease.

Vitamin D is required by the body to allow us to absorb calcium from the foods we eat. It is for this reason that many calcium supplements are made with vitamin D added to them as without it the intestines cannot absorb the calcium in the pill.

Vitamin D is made in the skin when the skin is exposed to sunlight.

There is some evidence that when someone starts developing parathyroid disease and the calcium levels rise the body uses vitamin D as a protective mechanism. The basic concept is that as the calcium starts to go up the body limits the amount of vitamin D made which reduces the amount of calcium the body can absorb from the diet.

The end result is that vitamin D levels go lower than normal.

A large study looking at this in nearly 1600 patients with parathyroid disease found that 67% of all patients with parathyroid disease have low levels of vitamin D. There also appeared to be a trend to vitamin D being lower the higher the level of calcium went.

This is an observational study and we do not know the mechanism for this however it does illustrate that vitamin D levels are likely to be low with parathyroid disease.

Occasionally endocrinologists recommend taking extra vitamin D in this situation. Generally this does nothing but it can have the paradoxical effect of increasing blood calcium levels - presumably as the absorption of calcium from the intestine improves.

So correcting the vitamin D level is not the answer for the calcium levels. Calcium levels are only very rarely high due to low vitamin D. What is usually needed is consideration of parathyroid surgery to cure the problem. Vitamin D levels can be corrected easily after surgery.






www.bucksendocrine.com

www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk
The article linked to below represents some of the features of parathyroid disease.

Firstly, it can be difficult to diagnose but the key feature is a high calcium and a PTH level that is normal or high.

Secondly, scans must not be used to diagnose the disease.  They are only of use in planning surgery so by extension the diagnosis should have been made first.  Scans do NOT always show where the offending parathyroid gland is - this is an important point which many doctors forget.


Difficult Parathyroid Case

www.bucksendocrine.com
www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk

Mr Andrew McLaren, Consultant Surgeon in the UK with a special interest in minimal access thyroid and parathyroid surgery

Monday 6 June 2011

Graves Disease and Thyroid Surgery

Read an article on Graves Disease by Mr Andrew Mclaren, Consultant Surgeon.  Graves disease can be treated by minimal access thyroid surgery...


Article on Graves Disease

Thursday 2 June 2011

Minimal Access Parathyroid Surgery

Minimal access parathyroid surgery using a 2cm incision.

UK consultant surgeon describes the use of this surgery in practice. Read our paper on the subject

http://tinyurl.com/3ranv97

Daycase Thyroid Surgery

Read our paper on daycase thyroid surgery and how we successfully introduced this into a UK hospital

Daycase thyroid surgery is now routine practice in my hospital.

http://tinyurl.com/3k7rdgo

Sunday 29 May 2011

Thyroid Discussion Board

Thyroid Surgery Discussion Board

Come to my Facebook page to discuss issues around thyroid surgery.

For example:


  • daycase thyroid surgery
  • minimal access thyroid surgery
  • who should have a thyroid operation
  • thyroid surgery for Graves disease
www.bucksendocrine.com

www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk

Saturday 28 May 2011

Parathyroid Disease Discussion Board

This discussion board has been set up by Mr Andrew McLaren, Consultant Surgeon, to help inform and educate patients about parathyroid disease and minimal access parathyroid surgery.

Friday 27 May 2011

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Great-Missenden-United-Kingdom/Bucksendocrine-Thyroid-and-Parathyroid-Surgery-and-Discussion-Board/187140961334484

Follow Bucksendocrine on Twitter for regular updates on Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery

Follow bucksendocrine on Twitter

Saturday 2 April 2011

Minimal Access Thyroid Surgery Video

Minimal Access Thyroid Surgery Video

The video link below shows Mr McLaren performing minimal access thyroid surgery using a state of the art Harmonic Focus device.  This product produced by Ethicon Endosurgery is used by Mr McLaren for all thyroid operations - it is excellent for dividing delicate blood vessels around the thyroid gland and ensuring minimal blood loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CnqbDEzOJM

Sunday 20 March 2011

Minimal Access Parathyroid Surgery

This operation represents the state of the art in parathyroid surgery.

If your surgeon does not offer this operation you should question why not and ask to see a surgeon who does offer this procedure.

If the operation is possible for you then why not have a tiny 2cm scar on the neck instead of a much bigger one?

The advantages of minimal access surgery are:

1. Small scar

2. Short operation time

3. Daycase procedure - most of my patients have this on a Friday afternoon and are home by the end of the afternoon

4. Rapid recovery

5. Most patients dont need any painkillers


Check your surgeon offers this operation.


www.bucksendocrine.com


www.thyroidsurgeon.org.uk