[The importance of preoperative fine needle aspiration cytology for the evaluation of thyroid gland nodes]

Abstract

The results of cytologic assessment of 2,287 aspirates from 2,200 patients with thyroid nodules (two thirds of which were "cold") are presented. The classification scheme proposed by Weiss and Pilz was used. The high predictive value of aspiration cytology in this clinical setting made it possible to limit surgical exploration to 10.6% of the patients examined.