Surgical considerations and approach to thyroid cancer

The management of patients with thyroid carcinoma is discussed, encompassing predisposing factors, how the fine-needle-aspiration results are used and when they should not be used, the utility of frozen section, indications for thyroidectomy and total thyroidectomy, the approach to patients with a follicular neoplasm on fine-needle aspiration, and when parathyroid glands should be transplanted. The authors approach to patients with Hurthle cell, medullary, anaplastic, and other rare malignant thyroid neoplasms are briefly mentioned also.