Life-Threatening Upper Airway Obstruction Caused by Delayed Hematoma Occurring 8 Days Post-Thyroidectomy

Kyeung A Ryu; Sung Tae Seo; Ki-Sang Rha; Bon Seok Koo

doi:10.11106/ijt.2015.8.2.187

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Ryu, Seo, Rha, and Koo: Life-Threatening Upper Airway Obstruction Caused by Delayed Hematoma Occurring 8 Days Post-Thyroidectomy

Case Report

Int J Thyroidol 2015;8(2):187-189.

Published online: 20 November 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11106/ijt.2015.8.2.187

Life-Threatening Upper Airway Obstruction Caused by Delayed Hematoma Occurring 8 Days Post-Thyroidectomy

Kyeung A Ryu, Sung Tae Seo, Ki-Sang Rha, Bon Seok Koo

Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Research Institute, Research Institute for Medical Sciences, Chungnam National University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea

Correspondence: Bon Seok Koo, MD, PhD, Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Chungnam National University College of Medicine, 282 Munhwa-ro, Jung-gu, Daejeon 301-721, Korea Tel: 82-42-280-7695, Fax: 82-42-253–4059, E-mail: bskoo515@cnuh.co.kr

Received 5 January 2015 Revised 10 February 2015 Accepted 16 February 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Due to modern methods, thyroid surgery is generally considered quite safe. However, post-thyroidectomy hema-tomas, although rare, can be life-threatening and unpredictable complications of thyroid surgery. Most post- thyroidectomy hematomas occur within 24 hours of surgery, with delayed hematomas occurring after one post-operative week being exceedingly rare. Herein, we report a case of delayed post-thyroidectomy he-matoma with respiratory distress occurring on the eighth post-operative day in a patient who was not taking anticoagulants and had no hematologic diseases. Although most bleeding occurs within 24 hours, caution should be used even in such patients who are considered low-risk.

Keywords: Thyroidectomy, Hematoma, Postoperative complication

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Fig. 1.

Neck angio-computed tomography (CT) scan of our patient. It showed a low-attenuating lesion with partial rim enhancement, suggesting a hematoma in the thyroidectomy bed.

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