Investigation of thyroid tissue in berry ligament by dissecting 103 cadavers

In this study, we investigated the relationship between berry ligament and thyroid tissue through cadaver dissection. 103 randomly selected cases from routine autopsy cases performed at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute between December 2013 and May 2014 were included in the study. Demographic data of the cases, length and berry ligament length average values, section positivity and section positivity rates by side were examined. There was histological section positivity in 22 (21.4%) of the cases. Histological section positivity was on the right side in 2.9% of the patients, on the left in 2.9%, and on both sides in 1.3%. There was no significant (p˃0.05) correlation between age and length and berry length. There was a significant (p < 0.05) positive correlation between length and berry length. Length and berry length values of male and female patients did not differ significantly (p˃0.05). It has been observed that the aim of leaving almost no thyroid tissue, which we think will be more important especially in total thyroidectomies performed due to thyroid cancer, will technically fail in approximately 21% of cases and some thyroid tissue will remain within the berry ligament.