ABSTRACT
Examination of the neck may arise in two contexts. The first is examination of the thyroid gland and peripheral manifestations of thyroid disease. The other is the examination of a lump, describing it and formulating a differential diagnosis. However, it is useful to list some of the possible lumps that may arise in the neck. To reiterate, the examination will either be a general neck examination in which there will be a lump to find, or a scenario that encourages the people to look for thyroid disease. Ideally, the patient should be perched on the edge of the couch or sat in a chair, so the people can walk behind them to examine the neck. Some people gently push the thyroid to one side to enable improved palpation of one lobe at a time. Expose the patient’s shins and look for pretibial myxoedema (specific to Graves’ disease).
