Method for biopsy of the wall of a thyroid cyst

Cystic thyroid lesions can arise from benign and malignant or potentially malignant thyroid tumors that have undergone cystic degeneration. In this paper we described a method for biopsing the wall of these cystic lesions to help determine the underlying pathologic abnormality that leads to cyst formation. Initial results have shown that most cysts arise from benign thyroid disease. Twenty five percent of the cysts, however, did arise from degeneration of thyroid adenomas.