Epidemiological Study of Thyroid Pathology in a University Hospital

The incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma increased in several countries. The purpose of this study was to quantify the changes in thyroid carcinomas in our University Hospital.

Retrospective study.

All 1.927 thyroidectomy cases studied in the Pathology Department of Hotel-Dieu de France Hospital (Beirut, Lebanon), between 2003 and 2013, were included.

The Female/Male Sex Ratio of the studied population was 3.7/1. The mean age of female patients was significantly lower than that of male patients. The most frequent diagnoses were multinodular goiter (78%) and papillary-carcinoma (26%). 337 cases had a single lesion on gross examination. 21 of them were diagnosed with follicular carcinoma and 59 with follicular adenoma. A statistically significant correlation was found between the unicity of the lesion on gross examination and the final diagnosis of a follicular neoplasm. Thyroid carcinoma was multifocal in 33% of the cases and bilateral in 24%. A statistically significant increase in thyroid carcinoma proportion (from 15% in 2003 to 44% in 2013) was found. Among all thyroid carcinomas, the proportion of papillary type increased from 65% in 2003 to 94% in 2013 ; this increase remained statistically significant after the exclusion of papillary micro-carcinomas, whose proportion was stable throughout the 11 years.

In this study, we noted a statistically significant increase in the frequency of thyroid carcinoma, especially of the papillary type. The unicity of the lesion on gross examination is significantly associated with a follicular neoplasm.