Among every 12 young girls on the planet who have not reached the age of 35, one necessarily has benign nodular formations of the thyroid gland. According to statistics, by the age of 50, about 50% of women already have such tumors. Fortunately, the nodes in the thyroid gland are not so dangerous - the symptoms and consequences of the pathology are extremely rare and often do not require any special treatment, only regular follow-up by the endocrinologist.
Symptoms of a node in the thyroid
In most cases, the described neoplasms do not give a person any unpleasant sensations. They can be detected accidentally, during regular preventive examination or when performing ultrasound examination of the vessels of the neck and thyroid gland. Sometimes such tumors can be noticed visually, especially if they are located close to the skin. They look like small dense balls under the skin.
Symptoms of the presence of a large node in the neck of the thyroid or other parts of it are associated with the displacement of nearby anatomical structures and compression of surrounding tissues:
- difficulty breathing;
- changes in voice;
- swallowing disorders, especially during the intake of solid and dry foods;
- feeling of a lump, foreign body in the throat.
In addition to the usual benign tumors consisting of the same tissue as the thyroid gland, there are colloidal nodes - cysts. They represent an outgrowth in the form of a bag filled with liquid. As a rule, cysts also do not appear. But as a result of injuries or overexertion of the neck, a sharp jump in blood pressure, there may be a hemorrhage in the tumor. In such cases, there are specific symptoms of colloidal thyroid nodules:
- swelling in front of neck;
- sharp, sharp pain in the cyst area;
- fever.
These signs usually encourage a person to immediately consult an endocrinologist.
Consequences of growth of nodes in the thyroid gland
The risk of degeneration of benign tumors of the thyroid gland into a cancer tumor is a myth. Medical studies have shown that malignancy never occurs, even with rapid growth or multiplicity of nodes.
However, there are unpleasant complications of even benign tumors:
- Large size of the growth. Large nodes can squeeze the trachea, esophagus, cause the sensation of a foreign body in the throat .
- Cosmetic defect. Sometimes the described types of tumors visually deform the anterior zone of the neck, women suffer especially hard.
- Changing the hormonal background. Some sites are able to produce thyroid hormones, provoking the development of thyrotoxicosis .
The resulted consequences are direct indications to the removal of a benign neoplasm, which in other cases is not required.
Possible consequences of puncture of the thyroid nodule
Before surgical intervention and to clarify the diagnosis, a thin-needle biopsy of the detected growth is necessarily performed. If the puncture is performed correctly, there are no unpleasant consequences, maximum - short-term soreness and a small hematoma at the puncture site.
Complications and consequences of removal of the thyroid nodule
Usually, operations for excising benign tumors pass without side effects, and the patient is discharged within 48-72 hours after surgical manipulation.
In rare cases, the following consequences occur:
- hoarseness of the voice due to trauma to the laryngeal recurrent nerve;
- decreased thyroid function when removing large areas of it;
- change in parathyroid glands.