Thyroid surgery

Our team of surgeons offers thyroid surgery to patients across the greater Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Princeton areas. As one of the largest Thyroid Care programs in the region, our surgeons perform high volumes of thyroid procedures, leading to better outcomes for complex surgeries.

Our team of experts understand how operating on your thyroid, a gland at the front of your neck, can affect surrounding structures. Our surgeons operate with skill and precision, avoiding your vocal cords and lymph nodes as much as possible to preserve your function.

We use advanced techniques and state-of-the-art technology. For example, we offer ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsies, which enable us to diagnose thyroid disorders with a minimally invasive approach.

Understanding thyroid disease

Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped organ at the base of your neck, between your voice box (larynx) and windpipe (trachea). As an endocrine gland, your thyroid produces hormones that regulate many essential body functions. It primarily controls your metabolism but also your heart rate, temperature, breathing, digestion, and more.

Thyroid disease is common and affects women more often than men. It typically involves the thyroid making too much or not enough hormones. Thyroid function tests help us diagnose thyroid conditions. We take a blood sample and check it for hormone levels and antibodies.

Some conditions, such as small, non-cancerous nodules, may not require any treatment. Others, like hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), require thyroid hormone replacement therapy.

Our thyroid surgery specialists collaborate with multiple experts across Penn Medicine. We work as a team to review your needs. Together, we determine the best treatment approach to bring you excellent results. Your care may include the expertise of:

• Cytologists (specialists who evaluate cell samples)
• Endocrinologists and endocrine surgeons
• Genetic counselors
• Nuclear medicine doctors (radiologists who use radioactive materials to diagnose and treat disease)
• Oncologists (cancer doctors)
• Otorhinolaryngologists (head and neck surgeons)
• Pathologists (doctors specializing in evaluating fluid or tissue samples)
• Radiologists

Radiofrequency Ablation Clinic

Our otorhinolaryngologists and head and neck surgeons partner with endocrine surgeons to provide radiofrequency ablation (RFA). This minimally invasive treatment uses heat to shrink non-cancerous thyroid growths (nodules). After the procedure, many patients experience improvement in disruptive symptoms, such as swallowing difficulty.

RFA is a safe, effective alternative to surgery. You don’t need any anesthesia, and most people feel better within 24 to 48 hours after treatment.

Thyroid cancer and its treatments can affect your vocal tone, pitch, and control. We work closely with speech and language pathology experts to help you regain your vocal function after surgery. These specialists provide personalized voice therapy to improve breath control during speech, strengthen your vocal cords, and protect the airway during swallowing.

Sometimes, thyroid surgery, radiation therapy, or scarring damage the nerve controlling your vocal cords. We provide an array of non-surgical and surgical treatments, in addition to voice therapy, to address nerve and vocal cord damage, including:

• Augmentation, injecting filler material into the vocal cords to hold them in an optimal position
• Botulinum toxin injections to relax neck muscles and relieve spasms
• Steroid injections to soften scar tissue around the vocal cords
• Endoscopic laser cordectomy, a minimally invasive procedure that removes a small portion of your vocal folds to create a wider opening between your vocal cords
• Medialization laryngoplasty (thyroplasty), surgery to place an implant in your voice box that moves your vocal cords closer together