الفهرس 
contentsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 129 |  |  |
| | | from | 129 | | |
Abstract
The solitary thyroid nodule is a palpable discrete swelling within an apparently normal gland.The prevalence of the thyroid nodule within a given population depends on a variety of factors that include, age, sex, diet, iodine deficiency and therapeutic & environmental radiation exposure.The prevalence of palpable thyroid nodules is 4-7% in adult population all over the world. While by U/S the prevalence is between 19 and 67%.No race predilection has been described, but the areas deficient in iodine all over the world and the areas surrounding Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Chernobyl, showing increase in the incidence of thyroid diseases.from this study which was conducted on 77 patients with S.T.N. from the total number of 203 patients from Dakahlia suffering from thyroid diseases and admitted to Mansoura University Hospitals during one year(from July 2012 to July 2013), we found that:Solitary thyroid nodule is a common and important clinical problem.S.T.N. present in about 38% from patients admitted in our hospitals by thyroid problems over one year.Most of the patients (69%) were from the rural areas.The incidence of S.T.N. increasing with age and most of the patients were between third and fourth decades.S.T.N.is not common in children. S.T.N. is three to four times more in females than males.The right lobe of the gland was more affected than the left.S.T.N. can broadly classified in to benign and malignant nodules.Malignancy is more common in females.The final histopathological diagnosis of the resected gland proved that 33 patients (43.42%) were simple colloid nodule, 6 patients (7.89%) were toxic nodule, 11 patients (14.41%) were adenoma, 25 patients (32.89%) were malignant and 1 patient (1.31%) was Hashimoto’s. The most common type of malignancy is papillary carcinoma. The difference in age and sex among the different types of malignancy is non significant.Thyroid function tests can not differentiate between malignant and benign lesions. U/S is helpful in detection of number, site, size, vascularity of the nodule and associated cervical L.N. F.N.A.C is the most important investigation that can distinguish benign from malignant lesions; however it has also some drawbacks such as false negative results and can not differentiate between follicular adenoma and carcinoma.Hemi thyroidectomy is the role in all cases proved to be benign by pre operative cytology, while total thyroidectomy is the role in cases proved to be malignant by pre operative cytology or by post operative pathology after hemi thyroidectomy.