Thyroid Nodules Located in the Lower Pole Have a Higher Risk of Malignancy than Located in the Isthmus: A Single-Center Experience

Table 6

Nodule localization relationship with postoperatively pathologic groups.

Variables	Postoperatively pathologic groups
	Benign (n = 679)	Malignant (n = 101)	Incidental (n = 42)
Left lobe
Lower	114 (26.8)	19 (41.3)	4 (20.0)	0.309
Middle	158 (37.2)	10 (21.7)	7 (35.0)
Upper	79 (18.6)	9 (19.6)	5 (25.0)
Whole lobe	74 (17.4)	8 (17.4)	4 (20.0)
Right lobe
Lower	118 (28.8)^a	16 (32.0)^a	2 (12.5)^a	0.018
Middle	170 (41.5)^a	15 (30.0)^a	4 (25.0)^a
Upper	57 (13.9)^a	12 (24.0)^a	2 (12.5)^a
Whole lobe	65 (15.9)^a	7 (14.0)^a	8 (50.0)^b
Sum of right and left lobes
Isthmus	147 (15.0)^a	5 (5.0)^b	2 (5.3)^ab
Lower	231 (23.6)^a	35 (34.7)^b	6 (15.8)^ab	0.001
Middle	327 (33.4)^a	25 (24.8)^a	11 (28.9)^a
Upper	135 (13.8)^a	21 (20.8)^a	7 (18.4)^a
Whole lobe	139 (14.2)^a	15 (14.9)^ab	12 (31.6)^b

Data are expressed as n (%). Similar letters on the same line indicate similarity between groups and different letters indicate differences between groups.