In the World Thyroid Day , celebrated on May 25, Miguel Allen , specialist in thyroid and parathyroid surgery , and Filipa Sanches, a patient he recently operated at Hospital da Luz, participated and gave their testimony in the TV show “ Sociedade Civil ”, on RTP2 , dedicated to this disease, which counted with the presence of several specialists. “As I use to say, when a surgery is successful, the only thing that remains is a small scar, as it was the case of Filipa Sanches”, the Hospital da Luz physician highlighted. The thyroid is an endocrine gland located in the neck area, that produces a number of hormones with different essential functions – such as the regulation of metabolism and temperature, growing and body development. It is estimated that thyroid diseases affect 1 in 10 Portuguese , mostly women . These diseases are often “silent”, but can also cause symptoms, namely: Drowsiness and overweight (indicators of hypothyroidism); Overactivity and irritability, accompanied by weight loss (indicators of hyperthyroidism). In the case of women, thyroid disorders can cause infertility. It was precisely the difficulty getting pregnant that led Filipa Sanches to consultation and, after laboratorial analyses, she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, a thyroid disorder. In this RTP2 TV show, she reported her story, how it all happened, and how she now leads a normal life, after the surgery performed by Miguel Allen. The Hospital da Luz surgeon demystified , on his turn, some risks of the surgery – such as the temporary loss of voice or “hoarse voice” (15%-30% of the cases), but which is recoverable after a while, and the scar (relatively small and also recoverable, simply requiring skin care). He further explained how new technologies , namely intraoperative neuro-monitoring, help the surgeon “identifying precisely the vocal cords nerve, and showing at the end of the intervention that there was no damage, besides allowing to identify the parathyroid glands, which must be preserved”. There are other options, such as the surgery with no cervical scar, since it is performed via the axilla, the breast or via transoral. But the option varies from person to person, since “scars always result very well and after a few months are hardly noticed”. Watch the Miguel Allen intervention at Sociedade Civil – World Thyroid Day (starting on minute 20:35)
