title: [Echo-guided percutaneous alcohol injections of cold non-neoplastic thyroid nodules. Preliminary experience].
abstract: Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) has been recently used with excellent results to treat toxic and pretoxic thyroid adenomas. We investigated PEI efficacy also in the treatment of "cold" thyroid nodules in 31 patients with nodular goiter. All nodules were proved to be cold on thyroid scintigraphy. There was no clinical or cytologic suspicion of cancer. Informed consent to the experimental study was always obtained. Each patient received 24 +/- 4.1 ml of ethanol, injected once or twice a week. No significant side-effects were observed during treatment. All nodules shrank 66-97.6% (mean: 85.5%, p < 0.001 vs pretreatment volume). US-guided cytologic sampling was repeated at 3 months' follow-up. PEI was precautionally repeated in 4 patients exhibiting sparse follicular cells. Further data about this group are not available yet. These preliminary results prove PEI to be an effective and safe technique to treat thyroid nodules and to make a valuable alternative to surgery and L-thyroxine.
authors.affiliation: Cattedra e Scuola di Specializzazione in Chirurgia d'Urgenza, Università degli Studi di Pisa.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Goletti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenziardi
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Lippolis
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dell'Atti
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Caraccio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Monzani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000431:Ethanol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016606:Thyroid Nodule / Q000628:therapy*; D014463:Ultrasonography
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
vernacular_title: Alcolizzazione percutanea ecoguidata dei noduli tiroidei freddi non neoplastici. Esperienza preliminare.