Prevalence of Malignancy in Solitary Thyroid Nodule-A Retrospective Study

Background: Solitary thyroid nodule is defined as discrete mass palpable in an otherwise apparently normal thyroid gland. Solitary nodule is the common presentation of thyroid disorders.

Objective: This study aimed to look into the prevalence of malignancy in clinico-radiologically detected solitary thyroid nodule and to correlate the findings in pre-operative fine needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) and post-operative histopathological examination(HPE).

Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in our Institute for a period of 6 months using the data obtained between 2018-2020 of patients who were clinically and radiologically diagnosed as solitary thyroid nodule in the Department of General Surgery.

Results: Out of 30 cases of clinically detected solitary thyroid nodule 7(23.3%)cases was found to be malignant. The mean age of presentation was 41.2 years with male female ratio of 1:9. 25(83.3%)cases was reported as benign nodules according to pre-operative FNAC out of these 2(6.6%)cases turned out to be malignant on post-operative histopathological examination.

Conclusion: It is concluded that from the present study the prevalence of malignancy in clinically detected solitary thyroid nodule is 23.3%. FNAC being sensitive, cost effective and reliable tool in the preoperative assessment of solitary thyroid nodules and HPE in post operative evaluation of clinical specimen both playing a vital role in management of solitary thyroid nodule thus helping in early diagnosis and proper surgical intervention.