Incidental carcinoma in patients operated for multinodular goiter

Purpose: Our purpose is to detect the rate of incidental carcinoma in multinodulary goiter. However thyroid nodules' frequency is 4-7 % in normal population, malignant nodules are much rare. They represent only 0.2 % of deaths due to cancer. According to the investigations, malignant diseases of the thyroid gland is much more than detected values, but they are considered rare due to the slow and benign nature of the disease. Incidental carcinoma frequency after evaluation of specimens of multinodular thyroid disease changes between 3-16 % differentiating from population to population. Materials and Methods: In our study we evaluated 267 patients retrospectively and detected the incidental carcinoma ratio and evaluated treatment protocols. Result: In our patient group we found out that with considering the complication risks in benign diseases we prefered bilateral near total thyroidectomy or total thyroidectomy as the operative technique. Conclusion: Bilateral near total thyroidectomy or total thyroidectomy could be decided as the operative technique.