MANAGEMENT OF MALE GOITERS IN A TERTIARY HEALTH CARE INSTITUITION IN NIGERIA

Introduction: Goiter is an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland and commoner in females. In developed countries, it is treated by total thyroidectomy and thyroxine replacement for life while most centres in Africa do subtotal or near total thyroidectomy for benign goiters. This study seeks to determine the presentation, histological types and outcome of management of goiters in males.

Patients and Methods: This is an 11 year retrospective study of all male patients with goiter that presented to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between 1st January, 1999 and 31st December, 2009. Relevant data were extracted and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 17.

Results: A total of 27 male patients with goiter were seen within the study period. Their ages ranged from 27 to 76 with a mean of 46.7 ± 3.2 years and a median of 45 years. All the patients presented with simple multinodular goiter. All the patients had subtotal thyroidectomy and colloid goiter was the commonest histological type, seen in 14 (51.9%) patients. All the patients had subtotal thyroidectomy and postoperative complications were only observed in 3 (11.1%) patients.

Conclusion: Simple multinodular goiter was the most frequent mode of presentation. We recommend that the salt iodization programs should be sustained to reduce the incidence.