Mario Testini • Angela Gurrado
Editors

2024

Historically, following the first known reference to a successful treatment of goiter from Albucasis in 952 AD, for many centuries thyroidectomy recorded high mortality rates (up to 40%), and was even banned in 1850. At the beginning of the twentieth century, advancements in general anesthesia, antisepsis, surgical technique, and instrumentation contributed to a significant decrease in operative mortality, down to 0.18% recorded by Kocher in 1917.