Technical
Anesthesia type/technique
Both general and locoregional anesthesia are used for thyroidectomy. An important aspect of anesthesia is minimizing postoperative nausea, which can predispose to vomiting and retching, potentially inducing bleeding in the surgical wound. It is particularly important that the patient's nausea is under control before discharge from outpatient thyroidectomy. Recent randomized studies have shown that the use of dexamethasone or pre-emptive antiemetic agents such as droperidol reduces postoperative nausea and vomiting (29,30). Another important aspect of general anesthesia is smooth emergence to minimize excessive coughing, which may increase the risk of postoperative hemorrhage. Various techniques have been proposed as ways of reducing coughing during emergence, including deep extubation, administration of dexmedotomidine, or intravenous or topical lidocaine.
A number of studies in recent years have validated the efficacy of local/regional anesthesia using superficial or combined deep (level C2–C4)/superficial cervical block with monitored anesthesia care for performing thyroidectomy in properly selected patients. Retrospective review of case series (31–33) as well as a randomized trial (6) have shown that compared with general anesthesia, regional anesthesia with monitored anesthesia care reduces postoperative use of antiemetics, time in the operating room, and length of stay. Superficial and/or a deep cervical block have also been shown to be a helpful adjunct to general anesthesia in reducing postoperative use of narcotics for pain (34–36). This may have some advantage in those who are sensitive to narcotics and likely to develop nausea, where the use of narcotics can be minimized in the outpatient setting. However, a crucial prerequisite for this is the availability of an anesthesiologist or surgeon who is skilled in the administration of superficial and/or deep cervical blocks and proper levels of sedation. A major disadvantage of this approach is the inability to employ continuous nerve monitoring using a laryngeal electromyography endotracheal tube, although transcricothyroid muscle needle electrodes can permit laryngeal electromyography monitoring under local anesthesia of both the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve (37).