• Board Certified General Surgeon | Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
  • Experienced, Highly Trained, and Dedicated Staff
  • Dedication to Compassionate, Respectful Patient Care
  • Our Goal is to Provide Minimally Invasive Treatment Whenever Possible
  • We Work Closely With Your Primary Care Physician to Provide Comprehensive Care
  • State-of-the-Art Facilities and Technologies
  • A Full Range of Treatment Options from Minimally Invasive Procedures to Surgical Repair
  • Translation Available for Spanish-speaking Patients
  • A Focus on Minimally Invasive Alternatives to Open Surgery

Thyroid Surgery

Dr. Harding has been performing thyroid surgery in Phoenix for 18 years. His passion for this area of General Surgery started with the many intriguing patient cases of thyroid disease he treated in residency at Georgetown University. Over the last 18 years he has performed almost three thousand thyroid operations. The thyroid surgery performed is determined on an individual basis depending on each person's specific problem. This may include a range of problems, which are indeterminate thyroid nodules, large multinodular goiter, hyper functioning thyroid glands, hypo functioning glands with compressive symptoms, as well as thyroid cancer.

For the vast majority of patients, a diagnosis of thyroid malignancy will lead to a thyroid surgeon consultation. During this consultation the size as well as location of this lesion will be evaluated. If no prior neck lymph node assessment has been performed, than a "wide-field" ultrasound study of neck lymph nodes will be scheduled or performed in the office by Dr. Harding. Thorough surgical preoperative assessment is essential before any thyroid surgery can or should be performed, especially for cancer operations.

There is a wide range of surgical operations which can be performed for thyroid surgery and Dr. Harding performs them all. He has discontinued performing robotic thyroid surgery to avoid unnecessary intra operative and postoperative complications, which have arisen with this more expensive and more invasive technique.

Simple procedures such as Thyroid ultrasounds and ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsies are performed in the office. We have access to sending thyroid tissue for molecular genetic testing when appropriate.

All patients who have had ultrasound imaging should acquire their most recent images on CD for Dr. Harding to review during his office consultation. For patients who need surgery he will require a recent serum TSH and free T4 level as well as a serum Calcium level.

Complex patients are frequently referred to Dr. Harding because of his vast experience. Problems such as Graves' disease, extensive lymph node disease from thyroid cancer, as well as reoperative thyroid surgery for multinodular goiters are common conditions seen and are cared for in an expeditious manner.


Preparing for Thyroid Surgery

Source: Mass General Hospital YouTube Channel, written by Sareh Parangi, MD, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital - Mass General Hospital YouTube Channel Link


Thyroid Nodules Checklist

Thyroid.org - For Thyroid Publication Resources