Butterfly sized thyroid gland becomes huge coconut sized tumor

Butterfly sized thyroid gland becomes huge coconut sized tumor
Normal thyroid size which is 3-4 cms became 20 cms hard like a rock

Mr. Raghubir (name changed) aged 72yrs belonging from Begusarai, Bihar is a farmer. For a period of last 6 months he was suffering from difficulty in breathing and swallowing.

The problem started increasing so much that his quality of life was totally hampered. He was brought to the Department of ENT and Head, Neck Onco Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi last month.

According to Dr. Sangeet Agarwal, Consultant, Head and Neck Onco Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, “Doing of my last so many years of practice I have operated more than 250 such cases of huge thyroid tumors but this was a unique case in terms of weight and size where in normal butterfly shape thyroid gland which normally weighs 10-15gms and is of 3-4cms size, became to the size of more than coconut size of18-20cm firm and hard tumor like a rock (picture attached)”.

There were multiple challenges involved in this surgery (1) Biggest challenge was to save the voice of the patient while removing this tumor. Bilateral Vocal Cord Nerves were saved successfully. (2) High vascularity (tumor was filled with multiple blood vessels) of the gland due to which chances of blood loss was very high. Special care was taken to to avoid puncturing of these blood vessels (3) Trachea (Wind Pipe) was compressed due to which special technique for anaesthesia had to be applied. (4) In such types of huge tumors , preservation of calcium and maintaining para thyroid glands was also a big challenge . We were able to successfully preserve all 4 para thyroid glands.

The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ located in the base of neck. It releases hormones that control metabolism—the way body uses energy. The thyroid’s hormones regulate vital body functions, including:
• Breathing
• Heart rate
• Central and peripheral nervous systems
• Body weight
• Muscle strength
• Menstrual cycles›
• Body temperature
• Cholesterol levels

The thyroid gland lies in front of throat which is sometimes also called the Adam’s apple.
The surgery took about 3 hours. This was performed by Head and Neck Onco Surgery team leaded by Dr. Sangeet Agarwal.