Surgical Treatment of Substernal Goiter Part 1: Surgical Indications, Pre-Operative, and Peroperative Preparation

Surgery is one of the most appropriate treatment options for many patients with substernal goiter (SG). However, SG surgery has some technical difficulties and a higher risk of complications compared to normal cervical thyroid surgery. Due to these technical difficulties and complication risks, which we also mentioned in our study, SG surgery should be performed by experienced and high-volume endocrine surgeons in centers with a large team and technical equipment. Pre-operative clinical and radiological evaluation and definitions in SG were evaluated in detail in our previous study. Detailed pre-operative evaluation, pre-operative risk assessment, surgical anatomy, anesthesia, appropriate surgical planning and estimation of surgical width are extremely important in SG surgery, where surgical technical difficulties and increased complication risks compared to cervical thyroid surgery come to the fore. In this study, we aimed to evaluate these preoperative and peroperative preparations in detail.