Overall, 6.5 percent of thyroid cancer patients had general post-operative complications in the month after surgery, and 12 percent had complications specific to
thyroid surgery within the year after their operation.
The major risk associated with the
surgery itself is inadvertent damage to the parathyroid glands — these are small glands that lie close to, or
within, the
thyroid glands themselves, and have a crucial role in maintaining stable blood calcium levels.