Thermoablation

[Leener71]

ello all.. I am hyperthyroid and have a goiter which has grown inward. My endo can only recommend a total Thyroidectomy.

I also have COPD and Empyhsemie and there would be a certain risk with the gerneral anaesthetic. I have now found a clinic in Zürich ( I live in Switzerland) where they do thyroid thermo ablation. My GP was keen about this when I told him, although it is almost unknown here. It has been done in Germany for quite a few years.

Does anyone on here have any experience with this method?

I read a report a while back on here somewhere from a lady who went from England to Trieste in Italy to have it done a few years ago. I wrote to ask about it but didn`t hear anything and now I can`t find it anymore!

I have my first consultation on July 10th.

Please let me know your thoughts about this treatment.

Thank you

leener 71

[Clutter]

Leener71,

This is the thread you refer to healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[Leener71 in reply to Clutter]

Thank you so much Clutter

[Hidden]

Not a subject of which I have any experience but a quick search indicates it is a procedure which does not involve surgery. This indicates to me that the goitre will be somehow disabled and left where it is. That would seem to be OK unless, of course, the goitre is affecting the other delicate parts of the neck, the ability to breathe being the most important. Leaving a person without the ability to breathe properly gives you a good chance of getting recurrent bouts of pneumonia which in your case, with other health problems, may possibly prove to be extremely dangerous over time.

[Clutter in reply to Hidden]

Panda321,

Thermoablation is used to shrink nodules so perhaps it will also shrink a goitre.

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

It sounds a bit like choosing the lesser of the 2 evils to me but I would still have still chosen the TT if I had been informed of the existence of this procedure (if it had existed in 2005) whilst in a very similar position. It provides a permanent solution to the problem and certainly avoids the possibility of future occurrences of pneumonia.

The choice is that of the patient, but the patient needs to be informed of the consequencies of each of the choices available.

The GMC says:"Patients should be told of any possible significant adverse outcomes of a proposed treatment." I presume something similar applies in other countries and I do wish that doctors in this country would actually obey this instruction.

[Leener71 in reply to Hidden]

Did you not have problems of becoming hypo an and sorting out your medication???

[Hidden in reply to Leener71]

I had a rampant but non-malignant multinodular goitre which was doing its best to completely disable me. It was a case of having a TT or being confined to bed to eventually die. I was amazingly fit and well following the op and opted for RAI in case the thyroid remnants came back with a vengeance to kill me off. A short while later the horrible feelings of badly treated hypothyroidism struck whilst of levo and gradually got worse over the following years.

I never found the correct dose of levo and continually increased/decreased the dose until I gave up and sought my own solution - NDT.

I suggest you do not repeat this pointless exercise if levo fails to get you well when you have no functioning thyroid gland at all. Get some NDT and you will become as fit as you will ever be on any thyroid medication.

A thyroid operation is quite dangerous and no surgeon will perform it if other solutions are available. Then again, nobody ever told me it was possible to get combined T3/T4 treatment.

[Leener71]

The treatment "kills off" the giiter which reduces in size. The chap i am going to see is a professor and has all my files so hopefully i would be in good hands

[Leener71]

Unfortunately tests showed that the ablation is not for me. Too much of my gland is too active.

So its appointment with the surgeon next week.

Glad i explored a different treatment thouğh...at least i know now

Eileen