The Roles of Ultrasonography and Ultrasonography-guided Fine-needle Aspiration Cytology in the Planning of Management of Thyroid Cancers

Because of the widespread use of thyroid ultrasonography, many thyroid lesions, even thyroid cancers, can be detected early. For these small lesions, planning of the management of thyroid cancers, especially papillary thyroid cancers, is different from previous guidelines. By contrast, for the quality of life of these patients with early detected thyroid lesions, the management should be different. In addition, there are some lesions which are undetermined by fine-needle aspiration cytology, and the planning should be different from those with a definite preoperative diagnosis. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how thyroid ultrasonography and ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology could help the planning of the extent of thyroidectomy and further management. The convenient method of ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology we used is introduced in detail. Three examples with completely different management after ultrasonography and ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology are also demonstrated.