No-Drain Thyroid Surgery: A Single-Surgeon Experience

Introduction: The routine use of drain in thyroid surgery becomes debatable. The insertion of drain may cause discomfort for the patients and it may not prevent the detrimental effect of rapid hematoma and tamponade effect in the neck. Herein, the analysis of no-drain thyroid surgery of single surgeon experience is reported.

Material and method: This is the hospital based retrospective descriptive study.

Results: Between January 2020 to January 2026, 136 thyroid operations were performed by single consultant surgeon with no insertion of drainage tube. The characteristic of study group, indications, extent of surgery and complications are reviewed and analyzed.

Discussion: In each and every case of reported series, we created potential space and outlet in neck by cutting strap muscles and suturing at the angle with absorbable suture to prevent life-danger tamponade effect of rapid hematoma formation within investing layer of deep cervical fascia. The occurrence of complication in our report was comparable with other reported data.

Conclusion: This report verified that no-drain thyroid surgery is safe and there is no added morbidity for the patients who underwent thyroidectomy.