| pubmed-article:8092794 | pubmed:abstractText | Ultrasonography, the most reliable examination for the morphological analysis of the thyroid gland, does nonetheless produce some false negative findings. This results in residual nodules after surgery, which will cause real recurrence. Such recurrence can best be avoided by systematic palpation of the entire thyroid gland with two fingers by the surgeon. The authors wanted to assess the merits of intraoperative ultrasonography relative to preoperative ultrasonography and to intraoperative palpation in a randomized prospective study, the results of which are presented in this paper. Intraoperative ultrasonography is most useful for doubtful preoperative ultrasonographic findings in which lesions are described as "heterogeneous parenchyma" or "hypoechogenic areas". Like preoperative ultrasonography, intraoperative ultrasonography allows clearly visualizing the thickness and amount of parenchyma remaining within a multinodular goiter. Performing this intraoperative exploration, either with palpation or ultrasound, or both, seems to be the best way to avoid residual nodules. | lld:pubmed |
