Abu Dhabi: Tawam Hospital, part of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), has started a novel treatment procedure called Thyroid Radiofrequency and Microwave Ablation.
The procedure is recommended for patients who are at high surgical risk and have symptoms of thyroid compression, including airway compression, hoarseness due to vocal cord paralysis, and difficulty swallowing due to esophageal compression.
Dr. Bachar Afandi, chief of endocrinology at Tawam Hospital, commented on the new services, stating, “At SEHA, we are constantly in search of providing new breakthroughs for our patients that can help improve outcomes and quality of life.”
By offering this new treatment at Tawam Hospital, we truly believe it will change the management of benign thyroid nodules, improving outcomes for a subset of patients with symptomatic, non-cancerous thyroid nodules, when surgery is considered too risky, or rejected by patients. Additionally, patients who undergo the procedure are extremely unlikely to require permanent thyroid hormone medication.
Dr. Afandi added.
Dr. Jamal Al Koteesh, chairman of Clinical Imaging at Tawam Hospital and head of Interventional Radiology Clinical Reference group at SEHA Abu Dhabi, remarked that “there is tremendous potential for this emerging technology.”
“This procedure isn’t widely available yet outside major hospitals, and it won’t be appropriate for everyone, but it gives patients a reasonable alternative to surgery. It’s not as definitive as surgery, but it’s still very effective with minimal side effects,” Mr. Al Koteesh continued.
“Thyroid nodules are very common, and although many people will never require any intervention for their nodules, there is a significant minority who will seek treatment due to symptoms. I expect radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to be a transformative new option for patients,” the chairman added.
The procedure is appropriate for patients with cosmesis (the appearance of a lump or bulge in the neck), enlarging thyroid nodules with surgery ruled out, autonomously functioning thyroid nodules (AFTN), recurrent thyroid cancers, or high surgical risk.