Trial reportWorld journal of surgical oncology2012
The impact of routine open nonsuction drainage on fluid accumulation after thyroid surgery: a prospective randomised clinical trial.
Trial report in World journal of surgical oncology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of drainage versus no drainage after thyroid surgery on wound complications, a meta-analysis.International wound journal · 2023Pooled it
- Comparison of drain versus no-drain thyroidectomy: a meta-analysis.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2017Pooled it
- Association Between Cervical Drainage and Early Post-Thyroidectomy Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Activation of the Calcium-Sensing Receptor by a Subfraction of Amino Acids Contained in Thyroid Drainage Fluid.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2024Article
- Routine Use of Neck Drains Following Thyroid Operations to Prevent Complications Is No Longer Advisable.Cureus · 2024Article
- A clinical comparative study of thyroid surgeries with and without drain.Indian journal of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery : official publication of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India · 2023Article
- Efficacy of Drainless Total Thyroidectomy in Intrathyroidal Lesions of Thyroid.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2018Article
- The application of drains in thyroid surgery.Gland surgery · 2017Review
- Comparison of Postoperative Drain Insertion versus No Drain Insertion in Thyroidectomies: Retrospective case-control study from the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman.Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThyroid drains following thyroid surgery are routinely used despite minimal supportive evidence. Our aim in this study is to determine the impact of routine open drainage of the thyroid bed postoperatively on ultrasound-determined fluid accumulation at 24 hours.
methodsWe conducted a prospective randomised clinical trial on patients undergoing thyroid surgery. Patients were randomly assigned to a drain group (n = 49) or a no-drain group (n = 44) immediately prior to wound closure. Patients underwent a neck ultrasound on day 1 and day 2 postoperatively. After surgery, we evaluated visual analogue scale pain scores, postoperative analgesic requirements, self-reported scar satisfaction at 6 weeks and complications.
resultsThere was significantly less mean fluid accumulated in the drain group on both day 1, 16.4 versus 25.1 ml (P-value = 0.005), and day 2, 18.4 versus 25.7 ml (P-value = 0.026), following surgery. We found no significant differences between the groups with regard to length of stay, scar satisfaction, visual analogue scale pain score and analgesic requirements. There were four versus one wound infections in the drain versus no-drain groups. This finding was not statistically significant (P = 0.154). No life-threatening bleeds occurred in either group.
conclusionsFluid accumulation after thyroid surgery was significantly lessened by drainage. However, this study did not show any clinical benefit associated with this finding in the nonemergent setting. Drains themselves showed a trend indicating that they may augment infection rates. The results of this study suggest that the frequency of acute life-threatening bleeds remains extremely low following abandoning drains. We advocate abandoning routine use of thyroid drains.
trial registrationISRCTN94715414.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.