INTRODUCTION
Thyroidectomy is commonly performed surgical procedure for benign or
malignant thyroid pathologies mostly in young women. In addition to
benign pathologies, malignant pathologies also have a very long life
expectancy, so patients live for many years with their scars and scar
related quality of life is gaining importance by time.
During the preoperative visit, many patients mention about their
reservations about the shape of skin incision and risk of cosmetic
deformity. In order to minimize or eliminate the scar deformity novel
surgical procedures such as mini-incision video assited thyroidectomy,
robotic transaxillary thyroidectomy or robotic facelift thyroidectomy
were described in the literature (1-4). Beside the cosmetic advantage,
these novel procedures have some disadvanteges of additional expensive
endoscopic instrumentation, cost, operative time and newer complications
such as brachial plexus injury.
In the literature, Kocher’s traditional 8 to 10 cm transverse incision
is accepted as a standard incision for thyroid surgeries (5). In today’s
perspective, generally 4 to 6 cm lenght is enough for standard operation
and surgeon should keep in mind that incision should be as small as
possible and as large as necessary. Also the care should be taken in
terms of symmetry. Modifications on the incision can be done when
patients require extended exposure such as neck dissection or other
additional procedures. On the other hand, major reductions in incision
length for better cosmesis may increase the incidence of complications
(6) . A surgeon should not forget that the control of the disease is
more than the cosmetic appearance.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long term scar appearance
and satisfaction of the thyroidectomy patients with classical
mid-cervical incision. Also, we aimed to investigate the relationship
between the scar length, type of surgery, obesity and patient
satisfaction.