Do Obtained Volumes Represent the Total Volume of the Thyroid Gland?

Ozer Makay, Varlik Erol, Yesim Ertan, Nazan Ozsan, GulKitapcioglu, Gokhan Icoz and Mahir Akyildiz

Department of General Surgery, Division Endocrine Surgery, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
Department of General Surgery, Baskent University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
Department of Pathology, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
Department of Biostatistics, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

^*Correspondance to: Ozer Makay 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.1502

Abstract

Background: Determination of thyroid volume is required for making decisions on the extent of radioiodine therapy and for selection of patients to subject to minimally invasive thyroid surgery. Different principles of measuring thyroid volume have been practiced. Herein, we compared the estimated volumes to real volumes, obtained by measuring the excised gland.Method: Eight-three patients undergoing a total thyroidectomy were selected for the study. Indications for surgery were multinodular goiter, Graves’ disease and thyroid cancer. Obtained by ellipsoid volume formula with using 2 different correction factors, ultrasound based thyroid volumes were compared to post-surgical thyroid gland volume determined by Archimedes’ principle.Results: Preoperative ultrasound underestimated excised thyroid volume (30,1±2,9 and 27,2±2,6 vs. 34,2±3,5), (p< 0.01). This underestimation was not related to demographics, presence of multinodularity or thyroiditis.Conclusion: Acceptable correction factors proposed by Brunn (0,479) and Brown (0,524), used by the World Health Organization for the assessment of the thyroid gland, have to be corrected with a more optional correction factor.

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Cite the article

Makay O, Erol V, Ertan Y, Ozsan N, GulKitapcioglu, Icoz G, et al. Do Obtained Volumes Represent the Total Volume of the Thyroid Gland? Clin Surg. 2017; 2: 1502.