The solitary thyroid nodule revisited.

Abstract

A series of 195 clinically solitary thyroid nodules is presented and compared with a matching series reported a decade ago. Changes in the pattern of presentation, preoperative diagnosis and options of operative management are highlighted. Although the pattern of presentation has not changed significantly over the last decade, there was a shift noted towards reliance on fine needle aspiration for preoperative diagnosis. The false negative rate was two percent in this series and there were no false positives. There was also a shift towards more conservative surgery in the form of "nodulectomies" in the present series compared to the previous one. The incidence of malignancy in this series was 10.2 percent.