The solitary thyroid nodule. Selection of patients for surgery.

Management of the solitary thyroid nodule, especially the nodule which is hypofunctional on radionuclide scan, is still controversial. The major controversy centers around the selection of patients for surgery. A review of 50 patients who were recently operated on for suspected thyroid cancer at the Naval Regional Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, was undertaken by us in an effort to determine which factors suggest the presence of malignancy preoperatively. Not surprisingly, carcinoma was most frequently found in the solitary, hypofunctional, solid thyroid nodule, although there were exceptions to each of these clinical criteria.