The Prevalence of Incidental Thyroid Carcinoma in Patients Who Underwent Thyroidectomy for Multinodular Goiter

The incidence of an incidental carcinoma following surgical treatment for MNG varies from 3 to 16%. The aims of this study are to determine the incidence of an incidental thyroid carcinoma (ITC) in patients with multinodular goiter (MNG) and to evaluate the primary surgical treatment modality for these patients. Between January 2010 and July 2015, a total of 3311 patients who underwent surgery for goiter were retrospectively evaluated. Demographic characteristics of the patients, previous medical history, thyroid hormone profiles, thyroid ultrasonography findings, fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) findings, thyroid scintigraphy findings, surgical techniques, early postoperative complications, and histopathological diagnoses were recorded. The patients were divided into two groups: those who were incidentially diagnosed with a thyroid carcinoma (ITC group; n = ?) and those with MNG (MNG group; n = ?). Of 3311 patients, FNAB was performed in 1524 (46%) patients. Of these, 1790 underwent total thyroidectomy (TT) or near total thyroidectomy (NTT), 1066 underwent bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy (BSTT), 354 underwent the Dunhill procedure, and 101 underwent unilateral lobectomy (ULL) due to the presence of unilateral MNG. Postoperative histopathological examinations revealed an incidental thyroid carcinoma (ITC) in 283 (8.54%) patients, papillary carcinoma in 201 patients (201/3311, 6%), follicular cancer in 68 patients (68/3311, 2%), medullary cancer in 13 patients (13/3311, 0.3%), follicular carcinoma in four patients (4/923, 0.4%), and anaplastic cancer in one patient (1/3311, 0.03%). Our study results suggest that TT should be the primary surgical treatment modality to avoid the complications of a complementary thyroidectomy.