We studied the significance of chief complaints for the correct diagnosis of 104 patients (male 17, female 87), who underwent surgical excisions for thyroid diseases in our department from 1988 to 1992. In terms of histopathology, these consisted of 54 cases (51.9%) of benign diseases and 50 cases (48.1%) of malignant tumors. In terms of the age distributions, benign diseases showed a peak in the 40's and malignant tumors in the 50's. Patients who had no subjective symptoms or had not been conscious of their disease were more likely to be males (36.8%) than females (13.0%). This difference was statistically significant. These patients had had their thyroid disease discovered by chance at medical facilities. Female patients showed a higher rate (13.0%) of“abnormal sensations in the throat”than did of the male patients (5.3%). All patients who presented recurrent nerve paralysis preoperatively were diagnosed postoperatively as malignancies. Regardless of the benign or malignant nature of their disease, patients complaining of cervical pain showed a greater incidence (85.7%) of calcification in their thyriod lesions. General physicians found 40.0% of these cases of early thyroid cancer. This indicated the importance of palpating the thyroid region and the indispensable role of general physicians in addition to head and neck surgeons in the treatment of thyroid tumors.
