THYROIDECTOMY AT CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH ACADEMIC HOSPITAL: IS ROUTINE ADMISSION TO INTENSIVE CARE UNIT JUSTIFIED?

Introduction: Thyroidectomy is the commonest endocrine operation performed often in healthy patient at elective setting. Patients are discharged early and the post-operative course is mainly uneventful. The need for intensive care is not essential in most cases. This article reviews the cases of thyroidectomy at CHBAH that are sent to intensive care routinely to assess the relevance of this practice. Objectives: To establish the profile, the outcome of thyroidectomy patients admitted in intensive care and the incidence of uneventful ICU stay. Method: Review of all thyroidectomy admitted in intensive care from January 2013 to July 2017 Results: In 88.42% of cases, intensive care admission was not justified. Of the 11.57% that needed ICU, 90.90% was predicted pre-operatively by the underlying comorbidity and the surgical approach. Altogether only 1.06% of cases had unpredicted ICU admission. Conclusion: Routine intensive care admission was unnecessary in most cases.