Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jun 28, 2023; 15(6): 182-190
Published online Jun 28, 2023. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v15.i6.182
Computed tomography angiographic study of surgical anatomy of thyroid arteries: Clinical implications in neck dissection
Yashu Bhardwaj, Brijendra Singh, Pooja Bhadoria, Rashmi Malhotra, Swarnava Tarafdar, Kanchan Bisht
Yashu Bhardwaj, Brijendra Singh, Pooja Bhadoria, Rashmi Malhotra, Kanchan Bisht, Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, Uttarakhand, India
Swarnava Tarafdar, Department of Radiodiagnosis, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, Uttarakhand, India
Author contributions: All the authors have contributed significantly to this work; Singh B, Bhadoria P and Malhotra R designed the research study; Bhardwaj Y and Tarafdar S performed the research; Bhardwaj Y, Malhotra R and Bisht K analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Following the approval of Institutional Ethics Committee, with ethical clearance number AIIMS/IEC/21/323, CT angiographic data from 64-slice CT scanner and 128-slice CT scanner were collected from the Department of Radiodiagnosis.
Informed consent statement: A waiver was granted by our Institutional Ethics committee as this is a retrospective study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Anonymization of data will be maintained.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rashmi Malhotra, MS, Additional Professor, Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Veerbhadra Road, Rishikesh 249201, Uttarakhand, India. rashmi.ana@aiimsrishikesh.edu.in
Received: March 1, 2023
Peer-review started: March 1, 2023
First decision: April 13, 2023
Revised: April 27, 2023
Accepted: May 30, 2023
Article in press: May 30, 2023
Published online: June 28, 2023
Processing time: 117 Days and 3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

An individual's normal growth and metabolism depend on the thyroid gland, an endocrine organ. Simple goiter, thyroid cancer, and malignant thyroid nodules are just a few of the conditions that can affect the thyroid gland. Sometimes it is necessary to perform a thyroidectomy or hemithyroidectomy in order to remove a malignant thyroid tumor. Additionally, the neck is examined for surgical treatments such as lobectomy, carotid endarterectomy, emergency cricothyroidotomy, radical neck dissection, diagnostic and therapeutic catheterization, and selective thyroid embolization. Breathing difficulties may result from tracheal compression brought on by bleeding during the thyroid gland surgery.

Research motivation

To avoid complications during thyroid surgeries, surgeons must be aware of the path and variations of the thyroid arteries. The Garhwal region of the Sub-Himalayan belt, which is thought to be the endemic zone of goitre, has little scientific literature on the radiological anatomy of thyroid arteries. A three-dimensional orientation of the vascular and surgical anatomy of the entire cervical region is provided by computed tomography angiography.

Research objectives

Radiography is a non-invasive multiplanar imaging technique for vascular mapping. The objective of the current research was to examine the origin and variation of thyroid arteries, with the aid of Computed Tomography angiography, Surgeons must be familiar with the course and variations of the thyroid arteries to prevent difficulties during thyroid operations.

Research methods

Patients with known vascular anomalies (carotid hypoplasia, plaque in the carotid bifurcation, aneurysms) or past common carotid occlusions were excluded. Following the Institutional Ethics Committee's consent, the Department of Radiodiagnosis obtained computed tomography (CT) angiographic data from 64-slice and 128-slice CT scanners. RadiAnt DICOM Viewer (RadiAnt), a programme installed on the MSI laptop PC, was used to reconstruct the three-dimensional views of the photos. The Stuart-Maxwell test and the chi square test were employed in the statistical study.

Research results

Out of 210 individuals, 77.1% of the time the superior thyroid artery was observed to be arising from the external carotid artery. In 14.3% of cases, the artery was shown to originate at the point where the common carotid artery splits, whereas in 8.6% of cases, it was discovered to be a direct branch of the common carotid artery. Similar to this, in 95.7%, 3.3%, and 1% of cases, respectively, the inferior thyroid artery was seen to be arising from the thyrocervical trunk, subclavian artery, and vertebral artery. Another person was found to have a thyroid ima artery that emerged from the brachiocephalic trunk.

Research conclusions

In our study, superior thyroid artery (STA) originated from external carotid artery in 77% of instances, and the common carotid artery (CCA) and common carotid bifurcation were the sources of STA in more than 22% of cases. Variation in the degree of CCA bifurcation was also observed, which significantly alters the path of STA. The current study shows that there is a 4% variance in inferior thyroid artery origin, whereas its course varies depending on the level of thyrocervical trunk origin. We discovered that the thyroid ima artery is only occasionally present in a small number of cases—it was only present in one case—and that if it goes unnoticed, it can cause serious hemorrhagic disease.

Research perspectives

The Garhwal region of the Sub-Himalayan belt, which is thought to be the endemic zone of goitre, has little scientific literature on the radiological anatomy of thyroid arteries. A three-dimensional orientation of the vascular and surgical anatomy of the entire cervical region is provided by computed tomography angiography. The objective of the current research was to examine the origin and variation of thyroid arteries, with the aid of Computed Tomography angiography, Surgeons must be familiar with the course and variations of the thyroid arteries to prevent difficulties during thyroid operations. Additional research in this area using even better methods can further add to the existing knowledge on thyroid arteries.