Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Percutaneous Ethanol Injection (PEI) is well known treatment for benign cystic thyroid nodules; however, local pain is common side effect.

Objective: To compare between efficacy and safety of Percutaneous Polidocanol Sclerotherapy (PPS) vs PEI.

Patients and methods: We included 60 patients -with mean age 32 years- have benign thyroid nodules (9 of them were males). They were divided into 2 groups; group 1 with 30 patients ablated by PEI as a control group & group 2 with 30 patients ablated by PPS. The mean initial volume of nodules was estimated, and volume reduction rate (VRR) after 1 month & 3 months were compared. Moreover, compressive & cosmetic score were compared before and 3 months after ablation in addition to adverse events.

Results: The mean initial volume was 23.23±6 ml in group 1 vs 24.57±5 ml in group 2 (P value: 0.38). No statistically significant difference between 2 groups regarding VRR after 3 months (P value: 0.9). Local pain is statistically significantly higher among group 1 (P value: <0.001). Hoarseness of voice was found to be higher among group 1 (5 patients vs 1 patient). Fever after procedure was higher in group 2 (7 patients vs 1 patient)

Conclusions: PPS have similar efficacy to PEI in ablating benign cystic thyroid nodules with minimal side effects.