Thyroid needle aspiration in a community hospital.

Fine needle aspiration of the thyroid has achieved increasing acceptance as a valuable diagnostic aid in the evaluation of nodular thyroid disease. It has been suggested, however, that this procedure should be performed only in major medical centers. We report our experience with thyroid needle aspiration in 400 consecutive patients seen in the ambulatory setting of a community hospital. Benign cytology was found in 80% of patients. Surgery was recommended in 51 patients (12.8%) with either suspicious or malignant cytology, and cancer was found in 31 (61%) of these patients. Non-diagnostic aspirates accounted for 7.2% of patients. Thyroid imaging failed to add anything to the diagnostic evaluation. Our results compare favorably to those from university centers and show that thyroid needle aspiration can be performed well in a community hospital setting. We believe that it should be the initial study in patients with nodular goiter.