ABSTRACT
Palpable thyroid nodule disease is present in 1% men and 5% women in iodine-sufficient regions. Moderate-to-severe iodine deficiency has contributed to this high prevalence of thyroid nodules in the past. High-resolution ultrasound (US) can detect thyroid nodules in 19–67% of population in random selection with higher frequencies in elderly people and females. Most of these nodules are benign, and thyroid cancer has been detected in 5–15% of nodules depending upon age, sex, radiation exposure, family history and other factors. Surgery is the standard treatment of symptomatic nodules, nodules with suspicion or proven malignancy and with cosmetic concern. Radioiodine treatment is applied for autonomously functioning nodules. During the last years, few nonsurgical and non-radioiodine techniques have been introduced to treat thyroid nodules. These techniques include percutaneous ethanol injection for the treatment of cystic and predominantly cystic thyroid nodules and radiofrequency ablation, percutaneous microwave ablation, laser thermal ablation and high-frequency US ablation for the treatment of solid thyroid nodules. A significant reduction in nodule size could be documented for these techniques in several studies, but long-term outcome data are missing.
