We planned to study the outcome and complications of thyroid surgery in patients who were operated for thyroidal disease in the Department of General Surgery of the Medical Faculty of University of Trakya. The records including the data of age, sex, preoperative diagnosis, preoperative imaging results, biopsy results, operation types, frozen section results, postoperative complications, postoperative histopathologic examination results of 916 patients who were operated in the department of general surgery between 1996-2005 for thyroidal disease, were retrospectively analyzed. Between 1996-2005, 916 patients were [741 ( 80.9 %) female, 175 (19.1 %) male] operated. Median age was 42 ± 13. Thyroidectomy procedure was in 834 (91 %) patients the primary, and in 82 (9 %) patients was the secondary operation. The rates of overall complication, wound infection, hypocalcemia, unilateral transient recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, unilateral permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, and bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy were, 9 %, 2.7 %, 2.6 %, 0.1 %, 0.2 %, and 0.1 % respectively. We concluded that the recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy rate as well as the overall complication rate, and the mortality rate of our series were acceptable.