Nodule size and fine-needle aspiration biopsy: diagnostic challenges for thyroid malignancy.

Background: To investigate the relationship between nodule size and malignancy and the correlation between the dimensional parameter and fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in patients with a nodular goiter.

Methods: Histological data of 415 patients who underwent thyroidectomy were used to estimate the actual nodule size and the difference between the diameter of the nodular lesion and the included tumor (intranodular peritumoral tissue [IPT]). FNAB was performed in 338 patients, and its predictive role was evaluated in comparison with histology.

Shortening hospital stay for thyroid surgery.

The number of outpatient surgical procedures performed in hospitals, increases daily. In some countries, such as Italy, outpatient operations outnumber inpatient operations. The incidence of thyroid disorders and, in particular, the cancer forms, has been increasing sharply for many years in several countries.

Simultaneous medullary and papillary thyroid cancer: two case reports.

Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) have always been considered different from each other; in their incidence, their cell origin and their histopathological features.

Case Presentation: This paper describes two rare cases of the simultaneous occurrence of MTC and PTC in the thyroid gland. Case 1 is unique for different reasons: (a) the patient was affected by both multicentric MTC and PTC; (b) a "composite thyroid carcinoma" with mixed feautures of MTC and PTC carcinomas was found in the istmus of the gland; and (c) these tumors were associated with diffuse lymphocytic-type thyroiditis (LT).

Surgical site infections after thyroidectomy.

Background: The history of thyroid surgery starts with Billroth, Kocher, and Halsted, who developed techniques for thyroidectomy between 1873 and 1910. Before 1950, the operative mortality rate approached 50%. The advent of general anesthesia and antisepsis and the development of fine hemostatic instruments rendered thyroid surgery safer, but the potential persists for life-threatening complications.