The management of solitary thyroid nodules remains controversial, A series of 120 patients having operation for a solitary thyroid nodule is retrospectively reviewed. Neoplasia rate was found to be 29.1 per cent and the malignancy rate, 11.7 percent. These are compared with other studies emphasizing the use of thyroid imaging with radioactive substances or ultrasonography and invasive techniques such as fine needle aspiration where the yields of neoplasia and malignancy are, respectively 18-65 per cent and 8-29 per cent. Current techniques allow identification of solitary nonfunctioning and solid nodules, and operation for these should increase the yield of cancer while reserving thyroid suppression and possibly fine needle aspiration for the management of other lesions.
