Does thyroid-sparing total laryngectomy decrease the risk of hypothyroidism?

Incidence of Post Total Laryngectomy Hypothyroidism: Effects of Thyroid Gland Surgery and Post-Operative Radiotherapy

To record the incidence of hypothyroidism in patients after total laryngectomy, whether with or without postoperative radiation therapy and to analyze the effect of hemithyroidectomy for the development of hypothyroidism. A retrospective study included patients who underwent total laryngectomy (with or without hemithyroidectomy) between 2018 and 2021 for laryngeal carcinoma and/or received postoperative radiotherapy. Thirty-six (45%) of the 80 enrolled patients developed hypothyroidism after a median follow-up of 16 months. In this study, adjuvant radiation and central neck dissection were found to be significantly linked with developing post-operative hypothyroidism (p values: 0.001, 0.007, respectively). The incidence of hypothyroidism in patients treated for laryngeal carcinoma is high, especially after combination treatment of surgery and radiotherapy.

Semon Lecture: 'Laryngectomy Practice Based on Personal Research', Royal Society of Medicine, 5 November 2020, London, UK

I wish to thank the Semon Committee for inviting me to deliver the 2020 Semon lecture. This is a very special honour, as is evidenced by the list of distinguished lecturers dating back to the inaugural lecture delivered at University College London in 1913. I am not the first South African to deliver the Semon lecture, having been preceded by my previous chairman Sean Sellars in 1993, and by Jack Gluckman in 2001, who was South African raised and educated and who subsequently became the chairman of otolaryngology in Cincinnati, USA.