AbstractThyroid lesions are fairly common worldwide and are commonly encountered in clinical practice. From a clinical standpoint, the possibility of neoplastic disease is of major concern in persons who present with thyroid swelling. Although tumours of the thyroid account for only 1% of the overall human cancer burden, they represent the most common malignancies of the endocrine system and pose a significant challenge to pathologists, surgeons and oncologists. The present study describes the clinico-pathological profile of patients presenting with thyroid mass at our hospital. It is a prospective, hospital based study. Study duration was from January 2013 to July 2014. Sample size was 100 patients selected from all thyroid swelling patients attending ENT outpatient department of our hospital. All patients with palpable thyroid mass with normal thyroid function test requiring evaluation, surgery and histopathological examination were included in the study. Details like age and sex distribution of patients, site of lesion, clinical presentation, consistency of thyroid mass, histopathological analysis, distribution of thyroid neoplasms and malignancy was described. Out of the 100 patients studied maximum number of thyroid swelling was seen in females [86%] whereas male constituted for only 14%. Female: male ratio was 6.14: 1. Thus, maximum patients with thyroid swelling were seen in the age of 21-30 years i.e. 3^rd decade which was 32%. Least number of patients was seen in 61-70 years age group which was 4%. In our study, all patients presented with the chief complaint of neck swelling. The next most common presentation was pain which was seen in 10% cases. Out of the 100 cases studied we found a predilection for the involvement of right lobe more as compared to left. Right lobe involvement alone was seen in 47 cases followed by left lobe in 18 cases. Involvement of right lobe + isthmus was seen in 11 cases (11%). Involvement of left lobe + isthmus was seen in 9 cases (9%). Bilaterality was seen in 15 cases. Involvement of isthmus alone was not found even in a single case. Regarding consistency, most of the thyroid swellings were firm in consistency (70%) followed by mixed consistency which comprised of 22%. Cystic consistency was seen in 6 cases (6%). Hard consistency was in 2 cases (2%) which turned out to be malignant on histopathological examination. Histopathological reports found that maximum cases were of colloid goiter comprising of 76% cases. This was followed by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 7% cases and papillary carcinoma in 6% cases. Follicular carcinoma, Hurthle cell adenoma and medullary carcinoma was seen in 1 case each. Most of the cases were non-neoplastic comprising of 83% followed by benign neoplastic (9%) and lastly malignant neoplastic (8%). Of all the malignant lesions encountered in this study, papillary carcinoma was the most common (75%) followed by follicular carcinoma (12.5%%) and  medullary carcinoma (12.5%).

Key Word: Thyroid Mass.