[Radical thyroidectomy for malignant thyroid tumour: prognosis and complications (author's transl)].

270 patients were operated on for malignant thyroid tumour between 1955 and 1974. Before 1967, less radical methods of operation had been preferred, but since 1968, radical thyroidectomy - if necessary supplemented by selective or radical neck dissection - has become the procedure of choice if a curative operation was still feasible. This has brought about a significant fall in the incidence of recurrences and increased the survival rate in patients with well-differentiated carcinoma. The proportion of postoperative complications has been within reasonable bounds. The incidence of postoperative recurrent-nerve paralysis, at 9.4%, has not been raised by radical procedures, while the proportion of permanent tetany (11%) after radical thyroidectomy is much higher than after sub-total resection (2%). But the advantages of radical thyroidectomy outweigh the increased incidence of postoperative hypoparathyroidism.