Recent Trends in the Clinicopathological Features of Thyroid Nodules in Pediatric Patients: A Single Tertiary Center Experience over 25 Years

Table 1

Baseline features of the pediatric patients with thyroid nodules.

	Total (n = 215)
Age, years (mean, SD)	15	±3.199
Age groups
0–10	24	11.2%
11–15	79	36.7%
16–18	112	52.1%
Sex
Females	166	77.2%
Males	49	22.8%
Period of diagnosis
1990–1995	42	19.5%
1996–2000	50	23.3%
2001–2005	40	18.6%
2006–2010	38	17.7%
2011–2014	45	20.9%
Overall follow-up duration, months	75	(1–266)
Chief complaint leading to hospital admission
Incidentaloma	21	9.8%
Anterior neck palpable mass	165	76.7%
Lateral neck palpable mass	7	3.3%
Neck discomfort	3	1.4%
Hoarseness	2	0.9%
Dyspnea	3	1.4%
Unknown	14	6.5%
Fine needle aspiration at admission
Yes	161	74.9%
No	54	25.1%
Initial cytology
Nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory	1	0.6%
Benign	23	14.3%
Atypia of undetermined significance or follicular lesion of undetermined significance	15	9.3%
Follicular neoplasm or suspicion of follicular neoplasm	17	10.6%
Suspicion of malignancy	11	6.8%
Malignant	92	57.1%
Others (schwannoma and abscess)	2	1.2%
Final pathology after thyroidectomy
Benign	87	40.5%
Graves’ disease (diffuse hyperplasia)	37	42.5%
Adenomatous goiter/nodular hyperplasia	26	29.9%
Hashimoto thyroiditis	2	2.3%
Follicular adenoma	18	20.7%
Hurthle cell adenoma	2	2.3%
Other (schwannoma and abscess)	2	2.3%
Malignant	128	59.5%
Papillary thyroid cancer	106	82.8%
Follicular thyroid cancer	21	16.4%
Papillary with follicular thyroid cancer	1	0.8%
Tumor size by pathology after thyroidectomy (cm)	2.5	(0.4–9.0)