Clinicopathological presentation of solitary nodule in our setup

Introduction: most patients present with an asymptomatic mass discovered by a physician on routine neck palpation or by the patient during self examination. it is a clinical diagnosis. the incidence of solitary thyroid nodule is about 4%. methods: a retrospective study was done,including all the patients who had presented to our department east surgical ward of mayo hospital,in lahore during 7 years period from october 2006 to march 2013 with parotid pathology. results: altogether 341 cases were selected having solitary thyroid nodule. of them2 (15.2%) were male and 289(84.8%) were female. thyroid scan showed 272(87.2%) cold nodule of which 32(11.76%) were malignant. others are solitary nodule 15(4.8%),toxic adenoma 7(2.2%),hot nodule 18(5.8%); 1 case with hot nodule had malignancy. conclusion: solitary thyroid nodule is prevalent in our setup which needs proper workup for the evaluation. malignant solitary thyroid nodule incidence is high though fnac,ultrsonography reports are not reliable in our setup due to lack of expert. surgery is best treatment of choice which provides final histopathological diagnosis,better cosmesis and better patient's satisfaction.