Thyroid nodules are often an incidental finding during a standard physician’s visit or during a medical imaging test. A thyroid nodule is defined as a growth or mass that forms in the thyroid gland, which is located in the lower part of your neck. Therefore, the majority of thyroid nodules are not dangerous and won’t typically cause any serious issues. However, some patients will require surgery. Therefore, knowing when to have surgery or not will help you make the right choice in time for your surgery, backed by Thyroid specialist doctor near me.
Are all thyroid nodules dangerous?
Actually, the majority of thyroid nodules, over 80 to 90 percent, will not cause any serious problems. Many thyroid nodules will not produce any symptoms and will remain unchanged for many years. In these patients, doctors will usually recommend that the patient be followed on a periodic basis with ultrasound and thyroid function tests. There are warning signs or abnormalities present on lab tests, as well as when complications arise, that indicate when surgery should be performed.
Surgery may be necessary when:
- Suspected or confirmed cancer of the thyroid
When the initial work-up of the nodule indicates that it may be a cancer, the recommendation will usually be for surgical treatment. There are warning signs that indicate potential malignancy of a nodule:
- Rapid growth of the nodule
- Hard or irregular texture
- Enlarged lymph nodes in the neck
- Family history of thyroid cancer
- History of radiation exposure
A Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is the most common method of determining whether or not a thyroid nodule has a high potential for developing into malignancy, and if FNAC results indicate a suspicious or malignant nodule, surgery is generally advised to remove the nodule and evaluate the remaining tissue.
What are the Symptoms Associated with a Large Nodule?
Even though some benign nodules may not be cancerous, they can grow large enough to cause symptoms due to their size. For example, people with a large thyroid nodule may experience:
- Difficulty swallowing
- Difficulty breathing
- Feeling pressure in the neck all the time
- Hoarseness
Surgery can relieve some of these symptoms and improve the patient’s overall quality of life.
- Nodules Producing Excess Hormones
Some thyroid nodules produce too many thyroid hormones, which can cause hyperthyroidism. The symptoms caused by hyperthyroidism include:
- Loss of weight
- Palpitations
- Anxiety
- Tremors
- Heat intolerance
If a person cannot tolerate medication or radioactive iodine treatment, then surgery may be the recommended treatment option.
- Indeterminate or Repeatedly Suspicious FNAC Results
In many cases, FNAC results may be indeterminate or suspicious. In these cases, surgery may be the recommended method of determining if the thyroid tissue contains cancer, and if the FNAC results are still inconclusive, the physician may suggest removing part or all of the thyroid gland to allow for further pathological evaluation.
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