ABSTRACT
Surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands is generally considered very safe. Accurate knowledge of the frequency of surgical complications may be considered important for many reasons. These include: assistance in patient counselling and consent for surgery; use in surgical decision-making in selection of patients for surgery. The principal complications to be addressed, related to thyroid and parathyroid surgery, are: post-operative bleeding, hypocalcaemia, recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury, and persistent hypercalcaemia. Voice changes after thyroidectomy are commoner than documented recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (RLNP), but vocal cord palsy may also be asymptomatic and is often transient. The best-established national registries examining global results of thyroid and parathyroid surgery are the Scandinavian Quality Register and the UK-wide Audit of the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons (BAETS). The Scandinavian Quality Register was established in 2004 and receives data on thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal surgery, submitted from multiple centres across Sweden.
