Alchemist doc removes ½-kg goiter from neck
Alchemist Hospital, Panchkula doctor removed a huge goiter from the neck of a 54-year man. The patient had swelling for the past 15-year and was gradually increasing in size to the current size.
Dr Prachi Jain an ENT surgeon at Alchemist Hospital performed the complicated surgery of removing the enlarged thyroid which was going into the chest also through a neck incision only. The patient, Suraj Singh ( name changed) was advised surgery as it was causing him breathing problems.
Giving details of surgery , Dr. Prachi said that the patient was facing many problems due to increased size of the goiter as it was pressing his wind pipe. Its size was 444-gm, which is about 20 times higher than the normal weight. The normal weight of the thyroid is 25-gm. The patient discharged from the hospital and recovered well.”
Meanwhile goiter is an abnormal diffuse or nodular enlargement of the thyroid gland, a butterfly shaped gland situated in the neck just below the Adam’s apple. This produces hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) that are required to maintain the bodily processes necessary for life.
Dr Prachi said further, this problem occurs in people living in areas with iodine-deficient soil. Since iodine is a mineral necessary for thyroid hormone production, these people are not able to make enough of hormones and this causes the thyroid to enlarge. Another factor for iodine deficiency goiter is the consumption of hormone-inhibiting foods like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.
Surgical removal of the thyroid gland (thyroidectomy) is required when the size is so large as to cause symptoms by stretching or compressing adjacent structures, she maintained.
