A Clinical Study on Surgical Thyroid Nodules

외과적 갑상선 결절에 대한 임상적 고찰

The thyroid nodules are the most common endocrine disease requiring surgical management. Up to date, various diagnostic techniques and surgical management have been developed. Authors analysed 2285 cases of thyroid nodules who were treated at Department of Surgery, Pusan National University for the duration of 10 years from January 1980 to December 1989 and the results obtained were summerized as follows: 1) Patients were composed of 1727 cases(75.8%) of benign nodule and 558 cases(24.5%) of malignant nodule. Benign nodule was prevalent in forth and fifth decade comparing with malignant nodule was sixth and fifth decade. The sexual distribution revealed female preponderance with 1:10.8 in benign nodule and 1:9.3 in malignant nodule. 2) The histopathologic classfication of benign nodule in decreasing order of frequency were follicular adenoma 1009 cases(54.8%), adenomatous goiter 573 cases(33.3%), simple cyst 65 cases(3.8%), and Hashimoto's thyroiditis 52 cases(3.0%). The malignant disease were papillary adenocarcinoma 460 cases(82.4%), follicular adenocarcinoma 69 cases(12.4%), undifferentiated carcinoma 13 cases (2.0%), and medullary carcinoma 7 cases(1.0%). 3) Fine needle aspiration cytology was performed in 1758 cases and it showed 80.5% of sensitivity, 96.5% of specificity, 19.5% of false negative and 80% of accuracy. 4) The location of nodule was 87.7%, in unilateral, 12.2% in bilateral. 5) On the radioiodine scanning, the incidence of benign nodule with cold nodule was 83.9% and the incidence of benign nodule with hot nodule was 7.5%. The incidence of thyroid carcinoma with cold nodule was 88.3% and the incidence of thyroid carcinoma with hot nodule was 4.6%. 6) Most cases of benign nodules were treated with lobectomy 82.6%, subtotal thyroidectomy 10.1% and subtotal lobectomy 3.0%. Malignant nodules were treated with lobectomy and/or isthmusectomy 37.6%, total thyroidectomy 17.7%, subtotal thyroidectomy 15.4%, and any thyroidectomy and neck dissection 13.5%. 7) Postoperative complications were developed in 3.8% of benign nodules and 13.8% of malignant nodules.