Post-operative pain with and without neck extension in open thyroidectomy

Objective: To compare open thyroidectomy with and without neck extension in terms of mean postoperative pain. Methodology: This randomized control trial was conducted at Department of Surgery, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi for a period of six months. A total 160 patients, 80 in each group, were included through non- probability consecutive sampling. In Group A, thyroidectomy was performed with standard thirty-degree reverse Trendelenburg tilt and neck extension and in Group B, there was no extension group. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to measure postoperative pain. SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis. Results: Males were slightly more in number (51.87%) than females (48.12%). Mean age was 41.93 +/- 10.587 years. Pain scores at 24 hours post-surgery were 3.56 +/- 1.077 in Group A and 2.58 +/- 1.123 in Group B (p< 0.05). Conclusion: Open subtotal thyroidectomy without neck extension caused less postoperative pain as compared to surgery with neck extension. Further randomized, multicenter large controlled trials are required to establish this fact.