Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: βenign thyroid diseases are common and can cause physical and mental symptoms. Although they may not affect a patient’s life expectancy, they adversely affect Quality of Life (QoL). Thyroidectomy, even performed for benign thyroid conditions, is an invasive procedure that can further affect QoL. The present study aims to detect changes in thyroid-related QoL in patients with benign thyroid diseases who undergo thyroidectomy.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted on patients who underwent thyroidectomy for benign conditions between June 2018 and January 2020 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The thyroid-related QoL was assessed by a Thyroid-related patient-reported outcomes questionnaire (ThyPRO), recently translated and validated in Greek. The questionnaire consists of 85 items grouped in 14 scales concerning goiter, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and eye symptoms, tiredness, cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, emotional susceptibility, cosmetic complaints and impaired social, daily and sexual life, as well as overall QoL. Patients were evaluated one day before thyroidectomy and re-evaluated 3 and 6 months after the procedure. Data analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 29.

Results: The study initially involved 73 patients, of whom nine were excluded as thyroid malignancy was reported in the histopathology report. Of the remaining 64 patients, 49 were women, and 15 were men aged 47.5 ± 14.2 years. The most common indication for thyroidectomy was non-toxic multinodular goiter (54.7%), followed by toxic nodular goiter (21.9%). Patients improved overall QoL three and six months after surgery. Indicatively, goiter symptoms improved from 24.6 ± 2.6 before surgery to 7.6 ± 0.9 three months and 3.9 ± 0.7 six months after surgery (p <0.001). Similar changes were observed in all ThyPRO scales.

Conclusions: Thyroidectomy has a positive effect on the thyroid-related QoL of patients with benign thyroid diseases, regarding goiter, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism symptoms and eye-related symptoms, as well as tiredness, cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, emotional susceptibility, cosmetic complaints, impaired social, daily and sexual life.