Results
In the ten-year period of our study, a total of 659 patients underwent
thyroid resection. The mean age at operation was 49.6 ± 10.3 years, and
76.5% of patients were females. A total of 520 thyroid specimens were
reported as benign (78.9%), and 139 (21.1%) as malignant
(Table 2) . Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) was the commonest
malignancy, reported in 106 patients (76.3%), of which one third
(29.2%) were < 1 cm, and were classified as PTC
microcarcinomas (PTMC) (Table 2 ). Follicular thyroid cancer
(FTC) was diagnosed in 22 patients (15.8%), while medullary (MTC),
anaplastic thyroid cancer, and thyroid lymphoma (TL) were collectively
diagnosed in under 8% of the patients (Table 2 ). More than
80% of the patients with benign histological diagnoses had benign
nodular goitre (N=418), while follicular and Hürthle cell adenomas,
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease were histologically
diagnosed in 68, 26 and 5 patients respectively (Table 3 ).