Some time ago, I saw a private message from a friend in the background asking about thyroid nodule surgery. The core of the question was only one, that is, does my thyroid nodule need to be removed?
Surgical resection is of course one of the main methods for the treatment of thyroid nodules at present, but this does not mean that all thyroid nodules must be operated on. Excessive surgery will only bring unnecessary losses to patients.
There are four main types of thyroid nodules that require surgical resection:
1. The location of the thyroid nodule is very special or its volume is so huge that the surrounding organs are oppressed. Especially if the oppressed part is in the trachea, the nodule will bend and displace the trachea, causing shortness of breath and coughing, which will seriously affect the patient's quality of life. In this case, it is recommended to remove the nodule immediately by surgery.
2. Thyroid nodules complicated by symptoms of hyperthyroidism, such as fatigue and emaciation in the patient's body, can be surgically removed if medical treatment fails or the effect is not obvious.
3. If the thyroid nodule grows rapidly, and the clinical judgment highly suspects that it has the possibility of malignant transformation, or it is combined with other high-risk features of thyroid cancer, it should be resected immediately.
4. Retrosternal goiter, this nodule has all the properties of the above three conditions, it is difficult to rule out the possibility of malignant transformation, and it is easy to develop secondary symptoms of hyperthyroidism. At the same time, it may compress the trachea and esophagus, so it should also be surgically removed.
The four conditions seem to be many, but in fact they do not account for a high proportion of thyroid nodules. Most patients can reduce the nodules step by step through drug treatment, or even completely eliminate them.
