Preparing for Endocrine Surgery

Your surgeon will meet with you before your endocrine procedure so you know exactly what to expect. Every surgeon will do things slightly differently so be prepared for some variations.

In order to make your appointment with the endocrine surgeon more productive, please bring the following to your appointment:

For patients with thyroid diseases:

• Ultrasound or thyroid scan report and film
• Fine needle aspiration report
• Cytology results from fine needle aspiration
• Notes from referring physician and/or endocrinologist
• All recent blood test results

For patients with parathyroid diseases:

• Nuclear medicine studies
• Ultrasound report and film(s)
• Notes from referring physician and/or endocrinologist
• All recent blood test results, such as calcium levels and PTH levels

Your surgeon may use a technique to monitor the recurrent laryngeal nerve, the nerve to the voicebox, during your procedure. Since the nerve lives very close to the thyroid and parathyroid, it’s the goal of every experienced thyroid surgeon to identify and preserve it.

According to the few published studies on this topic, it has not been proven that nerve monitoring prevents injuries to the recurrent laryngeal nerve. And it appears that surgeon experience and the nature of the thyroid disease are the most important predictors. Nevertheless, it remains a useful technique. It should be discussed with your surgeon whether it may be helpful, or should be used in a particular surgery.