Efficacy of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration performed by surgeons newly trained in thyroid ultrasound

ABSTRACT

Background

There are a growing number of thyroid ultrasound courses to train endocrinologists, pathologists, and surgeons to perform ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA). However, there are limited data to support the efficacy of ultrasound-guided FNA performed by nonradiologists.

Methods

We compared the efficacy of ultrasound-guided FNA performed by surgeons newly trained in thyroid ultrasound with that of the same technique performed by 1 experienced radiologist. The ratio of nondiagnostic examinations was used to compare the 2 groups.

Results

A total of 197 ultrasound-guided FNAs were performed on 172 women (95.53%) and 8 men (4.47%) over a 12-month period. The efficacy of ultrasound-guided FNA did not differ between groups. A nondiagnostic report was found in 23% and 25.7% of the examinations performed by the radiologist and surgeons, respectively.

Conclusion

The efficacy of ultrasound-guided FNAs performed by our 2 surgeons was similar to that of our radiologist. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2016

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