What percentage of the time does thyroid removal injury vocal cord nerves?
chappowers40 asked:
I have developed several large & many small nodules on both thyroid glands. The Dr. wants to remove them. What could cause this? What % of the time are they cancerous cells?
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I have developed several large & many small nodules on both thyroid glands. The Dr. wants to remove them. What could cause this? What % of the time are they cancerous cells?
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I have had my thyroids removed it is about a 50/50 chance. they are so close to the voice box and the cancerous cells could also be higher or lower I had non cancerous ones. It is not a bad surgery and you will feel so much better afterward.
It’s very unlikely you have thyroid cancer. 95% of the time (literally) nodules are not cancer. And it’s more likely to be cancer if it’s just one nodule.
I managed to fall into the 5% that did have cancer so had the surgery to remove my thyroid, along with radioactive iodine treatment (RAI). The surgery really wasn’t bad at all. I was fully recovered in about a week.
Risks from the surgery are low. Permanent damage to the vocal cord is rare, it happens less than 5% of the time. Just make sure you find a surgeon that has a good amount of experience with thyroid surgery.