Research Article
Nikhil Nanjappa BA, Alok Mo
Abstract
Objective: To study the incidence and pathology of thyroid malignancy in patients operated for presumably benign nodular thyroid disease (multi nodular goitre (MNG) & solitary thyroid nodule (STN)).\r\n\r\nMethods: A total of 175 patients who underwent surgery for presumably benign nodular thyroid disease between January 2004 and March 2012 were studied, prospectively. These patients underwent hemi, subtotal, total thyroidectomy.\r\n\r\nResults: 37 of the 175 patients (21%) had malignancy on final histopathological examination. The mean age of patients with benign disease was 46.4 years and that with malignancies was 50.6 years. Mean size of nodules was 4.28 +/- 1.48 cm in the benign group and 4.21 +/- 1.48 cm in the malignant group. All those with MNG, 14/14 (100%) were papillary carcinoma and those with STN, 22/23 (95.7%) were papillary carcinoma. Among the papillary carcinomas, follicular variant was 15 and the micropapillary variant was 3.\r\n\r\nConclusions: The incidence of malignancy in nodular goiter is higher than what is usually reported. There was no significant difference in incidence of malignancy between MNG and STN (P value: 0.262). Papillary carcinoma was significantly higher in nodular goiter (97.3%). Papillary carcinoma was found in all patients who presented with MNG and all but one who presented with STN. Follicular variant of papillary carcinoma was more common than the micropapillary variant (40.5% and 8.1% respectively).\r\n