[Cervical abscess after hemithyroidectomy. An unusual complication]

Abstract

Cervical abscesses secondary to hemithyroidectomy are an uncommon complication. We report the clinical case of a 37 years-old male, diagnosed and operated for nodular goiter, who suffered a paratracheal purulent collection three weeks later. He was reoperated by drainage of the neck abscess and antibiotic hospitalary treatment during 8 days. In a control CT showed an improvement despite the presence of a seroma on the surgical wound. Cervical exploration was normal two weeks later. Thyroid surgery is catalogued as clean and does requires antibiotic therapy. This must only be kept for cases of surgical wound infection or local abscess and both of them are rare in the literature.