Thyroid needle aspiration in a community hospital. Wis Med J 1989 Oct;88(10):19-22
Date
10/01/1989Pubmed ID
2815809Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0024741835 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
Fine needle aspiration of the thyroid has achieved increasing acceptance as a valuable diagnostic aid in the evaluation of nodular thyroid disease. It has been suggested, however, that this procedure should be performed only in major medical centers. We report our experience with thyroid needle aspiration in 400 consecutive patients seen in the ambulatory setting of a community hospital. Benign cytology was found in 80% of patients. Surgery was recommended in 51 patients (12.8%) with either suspicious or malignant cytology, and cancer was found in 31 (61%) of these patients. Non-diagnostic aspirates accounted for 7.2% of patients. Thyroid imaging failed to add anything to the diagnostic evaluation. Our results compare favorably to those from university centers and show that thyroid needle aspiration can be performed well in a community hospital setting. We believe that it should be the initial study in patients with nodular goiter.
Author List
Findling JW, Shaker JL, Larson PRAuthors
James W. Findling MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinJoseph L. Shaker MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Biopsy, NeedleCytodiagnosis
Female
Hospitals, Community
Humans
Male
Thyroid Diseases
Thyroid Neoplasms
