FREQUENCY OF INCIDENTAL THYROID CARCINOMA AMONG PATIENTS OPERATED FOR BENIGN MULTINODULAR GOITER.

Background; Thyroid carcinoma is the most common endocrine malignancy. Worldwide incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing with considerable international variation in incidence. This study was conducted to document the frequency of incidental carcinoma after thyroidectomy in patients with multinodular benign goiter in our population as there was no such conducted in our population. Materials and Methods: A total number of 150 Patients with benign multinodular goiter of either sex having their ages ranging from 20 to 60 years were included who were admitted in the Department of Surgery, Nishtar Hospital Multan and DHQ hospital Khanewal by Non-probability Consecutive Sampling in this cross-sectional study. Informed consent was taken from the patients. All collected data was entered in SPSS version 20 and analyzed. Results; Of these 150 study cases, 47 (31.3%) were male patients while 103 (68.7 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 40.92 ± 8.32 years (with minimum age was 26 years while maximum age was 58 years). Of these 150 study cases, 68 (45.3%) were from rural areas and 82 (54.7%) were from urban areas. Majority of these patients i.e. 88 (58.7%) were from poor social background, 54 (36%) were from middle class and 8 (5.3%) belonged to higher class. Mean disease duration was 7.56 ± 4.16 months (with minimum duration of illness was 4 months and maximum duration of illness was 18 months). Incidental carcinoma was seen in 31 (20.7%) of our study cases. Papillary Carcinoma was seen in 22 (14.7%), follicular carcinoma in 4 (2.7%), medullary carcinomoa 3 (2.0 %), anaplastic carcinoma in 2 (1.3%) of our study cases. Conclusion;The frequency of incidental thyroid carcinoma after thyroidectomy for benign multinodular goiter was high in our study. Thyroidectomy helps prevent recurrence and is also curative treatment for patients with malignancies among targeted population. Incidental carcinoma was significantly associated with residential status, educational status, socioeconomic status and disease duration. Keywords; Incidental carcinoma, thyroidectomy, benign multinodular goiter