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Dr. Terris explains what a woman can do to ensure her thyroidectomy scar is minimal.
Dr. Terris:
Well, the thing I’d say first is, choose your surgeon carefully, and we recently published a paper that emphasizes that thyroid surgeons need to think like cosmetic surgeons because there are a number of principles that are borrowed from cosmetic surgery that can apply to thyroid surgery to achieve the optimal result, and this includes hiding the incision within a crease in the neck.
Although many young women that have the need for a thyroidectomy don’t have any creases, so there’s other places where we can put the incision where it would be best camouflaged.
As small as we can make it is better, and a number of other principles including, marking the incision while the patient is sitting upright in the holding area, just like you would if you were going to be marking out a patient for cosmetic facial surgery.
About Dr. David Terris, M.D.:
Dr. David J. Terris is a Professor, Department Chair and Porubsky Distinguished Chair in the Otolaryngology Department at the Medical College of Georgia. He graduated with his B.A. from Cornell University and his medical doctorate from Duke University Medical School.
Visit Dr. Terris at the Medical College of Georgia