Comprehensive Thyroid and Endocrine Surgery Program

What We Treat

The Endocrine Surgery Program at Northwestern is led by a team of endocrine surgeons who perform comprehensive assessments of endocrine surgical disease, including diseases and tumors of the:

• Thyroid gland
• Parathyroid glands
• Adrenal glands

We welcome patients interested in initial consultations and second opinions. Our clinics are equipped with state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment, so patients can have a complete evaluation of the thyroid and parathyroid glands during their clinic consultations.

To provide the most rapid and accurate assessment of thyroid nodules, all of our physicians perform their own ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsies in the clinic.

Northwestern Medicine Endocrine Surgeons are specialists accustomed to managing complex surgical problems, such as:

• Thyroid nodules
• Papillary Thyroid cancer
• Medullary Thyroid Cancer
• Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer
• Thyroid cancer that has spread to lymph nodes
• Recurrent thyroid cancer
• Graves’ disease
• Multinodular Goiters, Substernal Goiters
• Hyperparathyroidism
• Parathyroid cancer
• Adrenal tumors
• Pheochromocytomas
• Hyperaldosteronism
• Cushing’s Syndrome
• Genetic disorders that can affect the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands such as Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN)

At Northwestern, we approach all of our patients with the goal of providing a minimally invasive solution to their medical condition. The majority of patients who require surgery will qualify for minimally invasive procedures, such as:

• Minimally invasive parathyroid surgery
• Minimal-incision thyroidectomy (removal of the thyroid)
• Laparoscopic, robotic and retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy (removal of the adrenal glands)
• Radiofrequency Ablation of thyroid nodules

We also offer more extensive surgery for patients with advanced cancers. This includes procedures such as:

• Lymph node dissections to remove all the neck lymph nodes where cancer has spread
• Open Adrenalectomy

At the Comprehensive Thyroid and Endocrine Surgery Center, we work closely with endocrinologists, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists in a multidisciplinary approach to provide the most up-to-date care and treatment plans individualized for each patient. We have a Multidisciplinary Tumor Board which meets on a monthly basis in order to review complex thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal patients to improve the quality of care these patients receive.

Pushing the Boundaries of Medicine

In addition to the care we provide to our patients, our Program team is dedicated to improve the science and technique of treating thyroid and other endocrine surgical disorders, working alongside our colleagues at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

As faculty members of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. Jee-Hye Choi, Dr. Dina Elaraj, Dr. Joana Ochoa, Dr. Cord Sturgeon and Dr. Rebecca Williams are actively engaged in providing outstanding, leading-edge treatment of endocrine surgical disorders and are working towards new and better ways of addressing these conditions in the future.

The Feinberg School of Medicine has a rich history of basic and clinical science innovation, which our Program both benefits from and contributes to. Scholarly publications from our Endocrine Surgery team are accessible on their faculty profile pages.

How to prepare for your first visit with Northwestern Endocrine Surgery

To prepare for your first visit to Northwestern Medicine Endocrine Surgery:

• Our medical records team will reach out to all new patients for authorization to obtain information from outside facilities (previous labs, biopsies and imaging). This helps us not duplicate testing you have already had done.
• If your insurance requires a referral, please obtain one from your primary care physician before your first visit.
• Make a list of questions that you wish to ask our surgeons and nurses. If you do this in advance, it will help prevent you from forgetting important questions.
• Please bring your insurance card, a list of medications that you are taking and the contact information of the physician who referred you.