🛑 REMOVE Thyroid Nodules 🛑 NO SURGERY
During this podcast, the following topics are discussed:
✅ Advocate for patients to be as well informed as possible and consider all treatment options for thyroid problems, including avoiding surgery whenever possible and radiofrequency ablation.
✅ Five thousand dollars out of pocket and save your thyroid with radiofrequency ablation or thyroidectomy and maybe nothing out of pocket with an insurance paid thyroidectomy?
✅ If there are isn’t if there are options available if there is an option available to avoid surgery and it gives you an equivalent outcome or maybe even better outcome why wouldn’t you choose radiofrequency ablation?
✅ With radiofrequency ablation now it’s exciting because for thyroid nodules they can be removed without doing surgery
✅ Before radiofrequency ablation all you had was surgery really and obviously with surgery we talked about the possible risks of surgery and of course probably more concerning sometimes to a lot of people is if you take out half of the thyroid even if you’re functioning normally with thyroid your thyroid levels you’re having normal thyroid function 25% of those patients will still need thyroid hormone
✅ The beauty of radiofrequency ablation is that first of all in most circumstances it’s no general anesthesia you can do it in the office much like when you go to your dentist and maybe you’re getting a cavity filled you get novocaine or lidocaine to numb up the neck area and then under guidance with an ultrasound you take a needle
✅ The beauty of that is that the overwhelming majority of times radiofrequency ablation does not change your thyroid function so think about it we’re talking about an invasive procedure surgery general anesthesia complication risk
✅ They have a thyroid problem goiter or a nodule that can be treated by radiofrequency ablation that they seriously consider radiofrequency ablation in preserving the thyroid as a treatment option versus a surgery or a thyroidectomy
✅ Radiofrequency ablation is very effective and more effective than surgery in fact in ablating and controlling papillary micro-cancer without any real complications
✅ Radiofrequency ablation seems to be a little more focused and maybe a little bit more able to control that destructive process in that area so you can protect those important structures
About Dr. Ralph Tufano
Dr. Ralph P. Tufano is the Director of the Division of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery and conducts thyroid and parathyroid surgery with a focus on optimizing outcomes. He is a recognized world authority on the management of thyroid cancer, thyroid nodules, benign thyroid diseases and parathyroid disease. He has expertise in the management of thyroid cancer nodal metastases, advanced and invasive thyroid cancers as well as recurrent thyroid cancers. His work in molecular markers, improving surgical outcomes, nerve monitoring and exploring novel treatment techniques for thyroid and parathyroid diseases has helped the medical field tailor and personalize treatment for patients with these conditions.
Dr. Tufano has performed every type of minimally invasive endoscopic and robotic thyroid and parathyroid surgery over the years and was director of the initial team that developed the now internationally accepted approach for the scarless transoral thyroidectomy and parathyroid surgery.
View Full Profile: Dr. Ralph Tufano
About Philip James
In 2013, his laryngeal nerve was severed, shoulder nerve damaged, parathyroids ruined, and residual cancer left behind — all for a 1 cm thyroid nodule.
Later, a vocal cord implant was inserted to help him speak.
The word he uses to describe his work as patient advocate is, ‘tonglen’. Or, using his pain and hardship to help others.
