Does corticosteroid have any beneficial effect on voice change after thyroidectomy?

Voice alteration is one of the most common complications after thyroidectomy. It has a serious effect on social communication and economic and psychosocial status of patients. It has been hypothesized that inflammation and edema in the surgery site has a major role in voice change after thyroidectomy. This randomized clinical trial study was design to evaluate the effect of a single preoperative dose of steroid on voice change after thyroidectomy. This is a prospective randomized clinical trial with registration no. IRCT201106306925N. From all definitive candidates for total thyroidectomy, eligible patients were selected after exclusion of 12 criteria. Selected cases were randomly allocated to two groups. One group received intravenous dexamethasone preoperatively. Other group received placebo. Voice change was evaluated by Voice Impairment Score (VIS) postoperatively. Sixty-four patients were entered in the study and divided into two groups (dexamethasone and placebo). VIS was significantly different at the first day after surgery between dexamethasone (five) and controls (13; P < 0.001). This difference was seen after 7 days but without statistically significance (one vs three; P = 0.397). VIS score significantly decreased on the seventh day related to the first day (P < 0.001) in both groups. There were no significant dexamethasone complications in either group. Preoperative dexamethasone may decrease voice change after thyroidectomy.