[The cold adenoma as a surgical indication in an endemic area: over- or underestimated?]

The retrospective analysis of 7016 operations of the thyroid (1978-1985) showed an increase of operations of cold nodules from 23% to 52%. The rate of malignancy of cold nodules decreased from 7.2% to 6.3%. But, the intensive operative management of cold nodules resulted in an increase of operations of low stage tumors. Therefore radical operation of thyroid tumors was possible in 68.3% of cases. An elevated rate of malignancy is observed, if a cold nodule is associated with the following criteria: solitary, solid, male patients, younger than 30 and older than 60 years.